For Immediate Release
Contact: Jill Greenbaum, CEO
Police Liaison Group, Inc.
Tel. 347.560.9110
(May 1, 2013) In cooperation with the NYPD Counter-Terrorism Division Shield Program, School Safety Officers and local police precincts, the Police Liaison Group (PLG) last week held its first Best Safety Practices Conference for Private School Administrators in New York City. The conference was sponsored by First Republic Bank.
The NYPD Shield Program partners with security personnel for the purpose of helping to protect New York City from terrorist attacks, both foreign and homegrown, based on providing best practices, lessons learned, counter-terrorism training, and information sharing.
The conference was held to help improve crisis management and increase security awareness by school communities. Participants came to learn and share best practices to help prevent incidents and to minimize harm when it does occur.
The NYPD Shield Active Shooter presentation covered helpful procedures, systems and training for administrators to consider for their school facilities, and strategies were presented by the Police Liaison Group to encourage greater parent, student and school participation in identifying threats and reporting incidents.
Jill Greenbaum, CEO of the PLG, stated at the conference: “Tragedies like the school shootings in Newtown, CT, or the Boston Marathon bombings involving a 19-year-old man make it clear that we must be vigilant in knowing what’s out of place and how to respond, and be sensitive to behavioral changes in our own children in our own schools. Sometimes troubling behavior is identified by people who don’t know how or where to communicate it. The Schools Unite Network (“SUN”), a program of the Police Liaison Group which works in cooperation with the NYPD for schools, parents and students to help protect children, is a vehicle that allows individuals to report incidents anonymously when they are unable or unwilling to report to the police directly.”
Thanks to the outstanding efforts of the New York City Police Department, to date we have not suffered a tragedy such as the one in Newtown, CT. To minimize the likelihood of an occurrence, it is incumbent upon all of us to supplement the hard work of the NYPD, according to Ms. Greenbaum. As emphasized in New York City’s campaign, “If you SEE something, SAY something.”
Participants in the conference included over 20 members of the NYPD and approximately 50 administrators (heads of schools, CFOs, directors of security and directors of facilities) from the following private schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx:
- Bank Street School for Children
- Birch Wathen Lenox School
- Brearley School
- Brick Church School
- Brooklyn Heights Montessori
- The Caedmon ...