Uvalde, TX- Uvalde County commissioners take another step forward to improving communication between school officials and law enforcement, nearly 2 years after the Robb Elementary School shooting. Thanks to federal grant money, new projects are underway.
Uvalde County commissioners approved tools for better communication between school district and law enforcement officials. Brett Cross attends every Uvalde County Commissioners meeting to remind them what’s at stake.
“Why did it take for our children to be murdered before this county acted like it cared,” says Cross.
Monday morning they approved contracts for improvements in equipment. The goal is to have better communication between school officials and law enforcement. More than 260 handheld radios will be given out across 16 school districts throughout the south Texas region.
“Every time you click it goes to Austin here and back in a millisecond and that’s what drives the infrastructure,” says Forrest Anderson Uvalde County Emergency Management. Anderson says the project is funded through grant money from Operation Lone Star. Uvalde County received $4.3 million dollars while commissioners did not say this was in direct response to the Robb Elementary School shooting where 19 students and 2 teachers died. It’s a move Judge William Mitchell says should give community members peace of mind moving forward.
“They can talk to law enforcement if there’s a need, so we don’t have a breakdown in communication,” says Judge Mitchell.
Another project approved on the agenda and funded with the Lone Star Grant money: a new transmission tower. This will allow law enforcement to better communicate across the region with other government agencies when fighting such things as illegal immigration, weapons, and drugs like Fentanyl. Anderson says it’s been over 15 years since any of this infrastructure was improved.
” This 88-foot tower will provide vertical and horizontal space across those antennas,” says Anderson.
But for Cross, who lost his son Uziyah in the school massacre, he believes more work and accountability needs to be done.
“I’m glad that it’s doing it but at the same time, what’s communication gonna do when they communicated freely and knew what was going on May 24th and they still didn’t go inside,” says Cross.
Uvalde officials hope to roll out this radio handheld project by the start of the fall semester.