Police Could Have Stopped Uvalde Madman in Three Minutes

When seconds count, the police are minutes away. 

The Uvalde massacre that took place at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022 is still very much in the news as people try to make sense of how such a tragedy could occur.

The police’s sluggish response has been the subject of much criticism. And now, the Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw is criticizing the Uvalde police’s response.

According to a report by the Associated Press, McCraw stated that the officers at the scene of the massacre could have stopped the gunman’s shooting spree within “three minutes.”

During McCraw’s testimony, the teachers, not the law enforcement at the scene, should be praised for their acts of heroism. He stressed that police could have acted much more decisively in this instance. 

“There is compelling evidence the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre,” he stated. McCraw added that “officers had weapons… and body armor. The children had none.”

Indeed, this horrendous incident goes to show that police cannot always be counted to keep the public safe. Make no mistake, this is not a cantankerous anti-police take. It’s just an acknowledgement of the reality of the limits of law enforcement’s ability to keep the public safe. 

Plus, there are some institutional flaws with current law enforcement models, which requires tweaking. However, defund or abolish the police campaigns are the most wrong-headed approaches to dealing with these issues. 

Instead, there must be stronger punishments for law enforcement offices who flagrantly drop the ball in these instances, while also implementing a better screening process for hiring cops. 

On top of that, schools need to have better control of their security affairs by allowing qualified individuals to carry or hiring qualified private security to keep the place safe. 

The current set of school safety and law enforcement policies are in great need of a facelift.