Steps for reducing gun violence outlined

City commission’s report recommends one police officer at every HISD campus

Dozens of steps were outlined this week to help reduce gun violence in Houston, including placing a police officer at every Houston ISD campus and increasing the use of new technology.

The city’s Commission Against Gun Violence’s first report comes about three months after Mayor Sylvester Turner appointed the 37-member commission in response to the shooting at Santa Fe High School that killed 10.

Most of the recommendations focus on schools, but several address firearm safety and access, community safety and domestic violence and sexual assault. The suggestions hit the local, state and federal levels, and call for community involvement to see tangible effects, commission Chair Haley Carter said.

“Collectively as a community, we all kind of have to take it on ourselves and work with the stakeholders,” Carter said at a City Hall news conference Wednesday. “There’s nothing that says you as a concerned citizen cannot take these recommendations and go to a school district.” Using digital technology

The recommendations for schools include apps to report anonymous tips, digital tools to provide school layouts and blueprints to authorities in advance of crises, and micro drones to clear scenes in the event of emergencies.

The commission also recommended that each of Houston ISD’s 283 schools have one police officer on campus at all times. HISD currently has 216 officers, according to the district website.

Active shooter building codes should be put in place, the commission said. Some of those standards would include alarm systems, secure entrances to schools and secure walls and doors. A partnership with Microsoft will help the city create safer buildings, Turner said, with sensors and mobile and web applications that allow security to communicate with people in crisis areas.

Commission member Alina Dong, an incoming senior at Clear Lake High School, said the Santa Fe shooting opened her eyes to the reality of violence in schools and the need to take steps to prevent it.

“We often think the things that happen in the news take place in a world separate from our own,” Dong said. “It was at that point that I realized that it was just 20 miles away from my school, and it could have been me. As a student, it’s really meaningful to push for recommendations and push for actions.” Second report upcoming

Other recommendations are less physical and would take form through mentorship programs, violence prevention curricula, and increased mental and behavioral health resources.

The firearms safety recommendations mostly call for legislative changes, including strengthened firearm storage laws and mandatory reporting of lost or stolen guns.

One of the community-based programs listed in the recommendations is United in Peace, a program that would aim to reduce gun-related homicides, assaults and robberies within the Scott Street corridor, running from the Third Ward to Sunnyside.

The domestic violence-related recommendations include the creation of a protocol that would require domestic violence offenders to surrender firearms through the length of family violence protective orders.

“It’s not just about schools, that’s an important part, but it is about what is happening in our communities and neighborhoods, it’s about what’s happening in our apartments or homes,” Turner said.

A second report will focus on legislative issues and has an anticipated completion date of November, Carter said.