Cedar City Police And Iron County School District Team Up For Student Safety

There’s probably not a topic that will bring people together than that of the safety of children within a community. A lot of that discussion centers around keeping students safe while attending school. 

Justin Ludlow is the Public Information Officer for the Cedar City Police Department and supervises the Resource Officers serving in Cedar City schools.

Zach Tuttle is the Safety and Security Coordinator for the Iron County School District. They were both in studio with us on the radio to talk about the efforts being done for school safety in the community.

Tuttle spoke to the cooperative spirit that exists between the school district and the police. “If the relationship there as far as the interoperability between the school district and the police Department, if the relationship isn't good between the two entities, then there is an utter lack of information sharing which is foundational and being able to maintain any semblance of safety and security. And fortunately, we live in a community where the relationship between those two entities is phenomenal. And we get that kind of feedback from our leadership as they go throughout the state and compare our information sharing apparatus with other folks throughout the state,” Tuttle told us. 

Officer Ludlow echoed the importance of relationships in school safety. “So, the ideal goal is to have a bond or a bridge relationship between school administration and the Police Department. When we get new school resource officers, we do train them and explain to them that our goal is to be able to enforce the law at the schools, but beyond that, it's the safety of the school and being able to coordinate with school administration to make sure that the school runs safely and with the secure atmosphere,” Ludlow said.

He also went on to explain the benefits of having police officers in the schools. “It's nice to be able to have different officers in the school. (Having a presence) in the hallways during school breaks, during school activities. We've had schools get involved with different school resource officers. Having them do different skits during assemblies, and we just want to have that relationship with all these youth. You can see that all the youth that we see in Cedar City eventually came through the schools. And so if they have a different relationship with law enforcement other than just being pulled over, being interviewed, it's good to have,” Ludlow continued  

Tuttle explained that school personnel and School Resource Officers meet on a case-to-case basis at the schools to be sure they are aware of any developing situations. He also explained that they have “a system we call comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines which help us, sort of, identify behaviors or attitudes that may lead to something unsafe down the road,” Tuttle said. 

There is also constant training not just with law enforcement, but also with fire and medical personnel to maintain the safe atmosphere in Iron County schools. Officer Ludlow also explained that there is a positive connection when officers can interact with students in a relaxed situation. 

You can hear our entire discussion with Officer Ludlow and Mr. Tuttle below.