Recently promoted Monmouth Police Lt. Joe Bratcher and Information Technology Director Ken Helms came by to discuss some projects they have been working on. Bratcher and the Monmouth Police Department have worked with the local school districts in recent months to develop a security plan for emergency situations. Bratcher cited a quote from Teddy Roosevelt to explain why he thinks this training is important.
“Making the right decision is good. Making the wrong decision is okay. But not making a decision is the worst thing you can do. That’s what the training really relies on is making a decision – left or right – but you’ve got to move. That’s what we try to teach to the kids, to the staff, and to the teachers,” Bratcher said.
Bratcher believes bullying and the desensitization of violence are what is at the core of most school shootings. He encourages both students and parents to speak up in a possibly dangerous scenario, or if they obtain information about a possible threat.
Bratcher realizes that the chances of an incident happening are slim, but he wants everyone to have some type of training in case they are in the midst of a dangerous situation in the future.
“You’re not just training for Monmouth. A lot of these kids are going to go to college. You don’t know which kid is going to go to the next Columbine, or the next Virginia Tech, or Northern Illinois. So you’re training for future also. It’s training that’s going to be with them for the rest of their lives,” Bratcher said.
Helms explained some of the changes the city has made to their website, and how they plan to get citizens engaged moving forward.
“One of the things that we’ve done is, we’ve started posting council summaries usually the night of – right after a council meeting happens. If somebody is busy, or you know they can’t make it, they at least know what is going on,” Helms said.
Another highlight of the changes to the website would be the “Community Outreach” page, which highlights various projects and news from throughout Monmouth. A “Transparency” tab was also added to the website to allow citizens to review where and how money is being spent in the city.
To view the new changes to the website, log on to cityofmonmouth.com.
written by Jackson Kane
