Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
Keweenaw businesses are putting safety first and taking steps to better prepare for crisis situations.
Several dozen business owners and professionals met in Houghton yesterday as they learned of some precautionary measures that will improve security in the work place.
As tragic events such as the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida become an increasingly common occurrence, a multijurisdictional task force has been assembled in the Keweenaw Peninsula and that team has been educating members of the community on how to be best prepared for an active shooter situation.
“We actually started training law enforcement about 8 years ago and obviously part of this puzzle involves schools, civilians, businesses, and different places,” said Trooper Matt Djerf of the Michigan State Police.
In addition to telling local business about steps they can take, the task force is going above and beyond by offering site inspections and suggestions on an individual basis.
“What we initially started off was to set up a program to teach schools how they would respond in a worst case scenario with an active shooter. We have hit on all the schools. We’ve been able to educate the hospitals, some of the local churches, and if someone wants a site view, if you wanted to contact the Houghton Police Department if you’re in the city of Houghton, we could go there and do a site analysis and say, hey, these are a few things that we would change in a worst case situation where you could keep yourself safe if there was an event where you had somebody out there committing violence,” said Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly.
Businesses that are not in the Houghton city limits are welcome to contact the Houghton County Sheriff’s Department or the Michigan State Police, who are also willing to assess the place of business.
The team will continue its outreach education this week with hands on demonstrations taking place at local campuses, including Finlandia University today and Hancock Public Schools later in the week.
