How Texas police connect to monitor school safety at start of new year

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The new school year is already beginning for some Central Texas districts, and members of different law enforcement agencies across the area gathered Wednesday to develop better connections with each other and share advice about how to keep schools safe.

The Austin Regional Intelligence Center, which is managed by the Austin Police Department, held its second school safety symposium. Det. West Williams said this meeting at a conference center in north Austin is especially helpful this year, as more school districts launch their police departments to comply with a state school security law.

"School safety is a changing landscape," Williams said. "State policies, state procedures will change. It puts a burden onto the school districts. They're left to try to figure out how they can navigate through some of these changes. What we hope to accomplish today is not only provide people the ability to know who to contact if they have questions, who's out there to help them, what publications are out there to help them as well, but also make the connections."

KXAN's Will DuPree will highlight more about this effort in a story coming up tonight on KXAN News at 5.