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State Rep. Don McLaughlin, who was mayor of Uvalde when a gunman tore through the town’s peace and killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school, has filed a bill aimed at addressing some of the failures that plagued the police response to that shooting.
House Bill 33, filed Monday by the freshman lawmaker, would mandate law enforcement agencies across the state to create crisis response policies, a provision that takes aim at the nearly 400 law enforcement officers who waited more than an hour before confronting the shooter who had barricaded himself in a classroom – a decision that went against nationwide active shooter protocols.
“What happened that day was a failure of duty, leadership, and preparedness,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Law enforcement hesitated, communication broke down, and innocent children and teachers were left defenseless. We must do what we can to ensure these mistakes are never repeated. The Uvalde Strong Act is about guaranteeing that when a crisis strikes, there is no confusion and no delay—only immediate, decisive action to save lives.”
The bill would require school districts and law enforcement to meet once a year to plan their response to an active shooter situation. It would also mandate annual multi-agency exercise drills on how to respond to an active shooter. Texas already requires individual officers to undergo training for active shooter incidents but it does not require annual exercise drills for law enforcement agencies. The bill would also provide grants for officers to train on how to respond to an active shooter incident.
McLaughlin’s bill also would require the Department of Public Safety to enter into mutual aid agreements with local law enforcement agencies that would dictate how the agencies would share resources during a critical incident and how to coordinate the response. McLaughlin blasted DPS in the aftermath of the Uvalde shooting for not taking control of the shooting incident, in which federal, state and local police deferred to a local school police chief who was without a radio during the incident.
Police officers would be required to take courses on setting up an incident command center during a critical event under the bill.
After the shooting, state officials moved to address school shootings by setting aside funding to provide school police with bullet proof shields that would help protect them against shooters with high-powered assault rifles. Retired state Rep. Tracy King, a Democrat who represented Uvalde and who was succeeded by McLaughlin, also moved to change state law to bar people under 21 from purchasing, renting or leasing semi-automatic rifles like the one used in the shooting. The legislation came at the behest of some of the families of Uvalde victims but it failed to reach the House floor for debate after stiff opposition from gun rights advocates.
McLaughlin, a Republican who succeeded King, does not support raising the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles and his proposed legislation focuses on the police response to active shooters.
The bill would require police and emergency medical services providers who respond to an active shooter event to file a report detailing the event, how many staffers responded, how many deaths occurred and any problems encountered during the response, among other things. The preliminary report would be due no later than 60 days after an incident.
As mayor, McLaughlin was critical of the law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting and what he saw as obfuscation by police and state officials. The requirement for a preliminary report is aimed at giving the public speedier insight into mass shooting events, something that frustrated officials in Uvalde as well as the families of victims.
The bill is among House Speaker Dustin Burrows’ priority bills, an indication that it has a high likelihood of passing the chamber. After the shooting, Burrows led an investigation into the massacre that detailed “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” by nearly everyone involved. The inquiry detailed a police response that disregarded its own active shooter training and a chaotic, uncoordinated response by multiple law enforcement agencies that descended on the school.
The bill would require police to make available “sufficient tactical equipment” to allow officers to effectively respond to a critical incident. During the Uvalde shooting, police did not have tools to breach a door and did not rush into the room where the shooter was barricaded because they did not have bullet proof shields. The legislation lists weapons, breaching tools, bullet proof shields and bullet proof vests as part of the tactical equipment departments would be required to provide.
The legislation also aims to provide mental health support for first responders before a critical incident by requiring training about what to expect in a mass casualty event. After responding to an event, the bill would recommend that local governments provide mental health counseling to the first responders, but it is not mandated in the bill.
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