MONROE COUNTY, Mich. — Law enforcement and school officials in Monroe County are joining forces to keep students safe as a number of threats were made to Michigan schools over the last week.
Monroe County sheriff's deputies will be out and about near Bedford Public Schools buildings moving forward — both inside and patrolling the area.
Monroe County Sheriff Troy Goodnough said the move will allow deputies to become familiar with the schools in the district and ultimately, help students feel more comfortable when seeing law enforcement.
"So that when they do see a uniformed police officer in the hallway, they're not, 'Oh my goodness, something bad is happening.' No, he's here or she is here just to say hi," he explained. "Let us know you're OK and we're on the job. We're standing the post and we're going to do everything we can to protect you."
Not only do the deputies want to familiarize themselves with the lay of the land, but they also have a bigger goal in mind.
"I want every student in this county to say, 'Well, there's deputy so and so or there's a police officer. You know, he'd come to me and he just asked me how I was doing,'" Goodnough said.
He explained that as an added bonus, getting a better feel for the building will allow law enforcement to be in close proximity if a threat comes in, as well as quickly responding to those non-violent emergencies.
"It just improves our response time and our service to our citizens. It gives them another sense that we know what we're doing and we're going to do everything we can to help them," Goodnough said.
Last week, Bedford Public Schools released a statement about a social media post by a former BPS student mentioning the threat of a school shooting.
Goodnough said there were no immediate threats toward the district and while this isn't a solution, he's hopeful having more deputies around will deter incidents from happening.
"We will continue to take a zero-tolerance approach as it applies to that. We have great partnerships with the schools and the superintendents to ensure that the best outcome is leveraged — whether it be through the criminal justice system or internally in the school."
Goodnough said that at the end of the day, when you see one of these patrol cars in the school parking lot, odds are it's probably for a good reason.