Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office prepares for upcoming school with an active threat training

PUEBLO COUNTY, Colo (KRDO) -- Friday, Pueblo County Sheriff's School Resource Officers conducted an active threat training to prepare for any possible incidents in the upcoming school year.

The training happened at Pueblo County High School and included a group of SROs. According to Lieutenant Christopher Kilpatrick, they were drilled on the most up-to-date training.

The SROS told KRDO they trained for several situations that may occur. However, they couldn't go into detail about how they handle certain situations.

They did use a firearm simulator to try to make the situation as authentic as possible for the SROs in training.

Pueblo County officers said they conduct multiple pieces of training a year to ensure everyone is on the same page and understands any recent changes to the protocol. They did not have any students involved in any simulations.

Throughout the school year, there will be opportunities for students to participate in simulations.

The Pueblo County Sheriff's Office would be the ones who respond to any incident for all District 70 schools. The sheriff's office said that's a large area to cover, but they have set themselves up to be prepared for anything.

"We train regularly with all of our local fire districts. Our aim, our staff flight for life, other law enforcement agencies in the area, including Parks and Wildlife, just to ensure the fact that if something like this does take place, we've got the best-united front we can present to that threat, said Patrick Kilpatrick.

Kilpatrick said it's essential that they practice and go through these simulations for students' safety.

"Our kids are our future. And when you've got cowards that like to take advantage of that and harm our children and cause the chaos that they do in our communities. That's top of everybody's list. It's very important to have all of our staff on the same page as far as response goes," said Patrick Kilpatrick.

Kilpatrick said the school shooting that happened in Uvalde, Texas impacted not only that community but the entire world. He went on to acknowledge the footage released showing Uvalde officers not entering the active scene for more than an hour while a gunman shot and killed 21 people, including several young children.

Kilpatrick told KRDO that the type of training deputies did Friday is meant to overcome and prevent any kind of misunderstanding or misrepresentation that could occur during an active shooter situation.