Police Department Response to School District

June 6, 2022

To: Williams Bay School District

From: Chief Justin P Timm

In light of the recent heartbreaking events that took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain how the Williams Bay Police Department will be responding should similar events occur.

Rest assured that we are not naive to the fact that school shootings are becoming a bigger reality for communities both big and small.  The Williams Bay Police Department works closely with the School District and other Emergency Services to ensure the safety of the students and staff.  We train using an integrated response course called Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT).   The course was created by Texas State University as a nationwide initiative to train law enforcement officers to effectively address and stop an active shooter.  You can read more about the ALERRT training program at www.alerrt.org.

Lastly, our Village has the privilege of having a School Resource Officer (SRO) on-site during school hours.  What this means for your children and their teachers is that an officer will be onsite and inside the building should an emergency occur.  Your SRO will be there and communicating with our officers in real-time as we determine how to mitigate the emergency.  Your current SRO, Officer Borgen, has a vast working knowledge of the ALERRT system and is a certified ALERRT trainer. Every officer spends multiple weeks working with the SRO inside of the school during their training phase in order to become more familiar with the layout of the school as well as staff and students.

We recognize your concerns.  On a personal level, several of our officers are current parents and others are future parents, so your fears are our same fears.  We will do everything we can to protect your children as if they were our own.   

As always, we welcome any questions you might have.  We plan to have future conversations and question answer sessions with parents as we understand reassurance is an ongoing necessity.  

Justin P Timm

Chief of Police

Williams Bay Police Department