Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington is asking residents to avoid taking pictures of participants in an active shooters drill at Lincolnwood School Saturday morning.
The drill, expected to begin around 9 a.m., he said, is part of ongoing training at the Police Department “to ensure a rapid response to active threats that could occur in the city.”
The chief alerted nearby residents to the fact that they are likely to see a number of police and fire vehicles at the drill as well as “uniformed personnel staging in areas surrounding Lincolnwood School.”
He assured residents, however, that “there will be no live weapons carried by participants in the exercise” and that no simulated gunshots or explosions will be part of the drill.
Safety Team members from District 65 and District 202 are expected to be present to observe the exercise and to review internal procedures in coordination with first responders.
“Please feel free to watch the training,” Eddington said, “but we ask that you do not interrupt the exercise.”
And as for photographing or videotaping the exercise, the chief said “while we understand and respect your right to do so, we would not want our tactics to be disseminated to the public and available to those that might use it against your first responders.”
Not the best use of police time
Of course school shootings are sad and disturbing, but media coverage of school shootings distorts the perceptoin of the risk. Public displays like this to show us that something is being done about scare stuff that we see on TV will increase disproportionate fears of school shootings.
So what is wrong with that? The problem is it distracts from risks which are much more significant. More people in the US will die from car crashes in the next 2 weeks than have been killed in school shootings in the enitre history of the country.
Redeploying police time away from this drill to stopping speeders in Ridge Avenue is more likely to save a life.