Deputies to carry AR-15s to guard Broward County schools: Deputies guarding schools in Broward County will carry rifles, including AR-15s, under an order issued Wednesday by Broward Sheriff Scott Israel.

Deputies guarding schools in Broward County will carry rifles, including AR-15s, under an order issued Wednesday by Broward Sheriff Scott Israel.

Israel said the order applies only to deputies qualified on rifles and has the support of Broward schools Superintendent Robert Runcie after the Parkland school shooting.

“This morning I implemented a practice in the Broward Sheriff’s Office and spoke to Mr. Runcie who was fully supportive of my decision that our deputies who are qualified and trained would be carrying rifles on school grounds from this point forward,” Israel said at a news conference at BSO headquarters in Fort Lauderdale.

“It will be done safely,” he said. “Only deputies who are trained and qualified will carry those rifles. But we need to be able to defeat any threat that comes onto campus.”

Sheriff’s deputies only patrol schools in cities without their own police departments, but there is a broader effort by police across the county to secure more immediate access to rifles.

The Broward County Chiefs of Police Association agreed Wednesday morning to ask the school district to allow officers to keep rifles locked in school offices during the day and take them home at night.

Several police departments have asked the school district to allow that for years, said Margate Chief Dana Watson, vice president of the chiefs’ group.

“If the car is in the parking lot, it might not be as accessible,” he said. “The police car can be a halfmile away. You have to run past the shooter to get your rifle?”

The School District’s spokespeople did not respond to questions Wednesday about why the prior requests from law enforcement were denied.

Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi said he has been asking for five years and even unsuccessfully offered to have his agency pay for safes to store the guns.

“Officers cannot compete with assault rifles with their regular duty handguns,” Pustizzi said. “We have to go in and combat militaristic tactics and weapons . ... It looks bad: Can you imagine someone videotaping an officer running away from the school?”

The sheriff said the rifles are part of a multipronged approach to making schools safer, from increasing the number of deputies on campus to strengthening schools’ defenses.

Although Nikolas Cruz, 19, has confessed, the sheriff said the investigation continues into Cruz’s actions and the response by law enforcement.

Among the questions still being investigated are the actions of School Resource Officer Scott Peterson, the sheriff ’s deputy assigned to protect the school.

“Deputy Peterson was on campus,” Israel said. “Deputy Peterson, as you all know, is the school resource deputy. He was armed. And as our command staff moves forward on this investigation, the response and actions of Deputy Peterson will be looked at and scrutinized, as will everyone’s.”

Asked whether Peterson fired his gun, Israel said “He did not.”