To the editor: This is an open letter to the Habersham County Commission.
It has recently become clear that the much maligned “Chief of Police” in the Uvalde Texas school shooting was a school board employee with a department of six officers. An overwhelming force of over 300 officers from Lord knows how many agencies responded to the situation.
The “Chief” was clearly unprepared and overwhelmed. No real thought had been given to the possibility of a school shooting in this Texas version of Mayberry USA and the result was 19 dead children.
Many think of Habersham as a Georgia version of Mayberry. What concerns me is, in a county of just over 40,000 residents we have seven police departments, multi-county task forces, and Federal & State agencies (Troopers, DNR, ICE). Should an incident like Uvalde happen here, is there a response plan? Are the necessary intergovernmental agreements in place to ensure fast and effective response?
Chain of Command will be a challenge. Active shooter training exercises had been conducted at Uvalde. The obvious lack of effective command structure killed many children at Uvalde.
We would be foolish to think it couldn’t happen here.
Gerald Medlock
Clarkesville