Broward Sheriff's Office Implements Changes After Parkland Shooting
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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - It has been close to a year since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
On Wednesday, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel sent a letter detailing policy changes as a result of the shooting and recommendation from MSD Public Safety Commission.
The letter was sent hours after the Sun Sentinel published an article from its Editorial Board calling stating Israel has failed leadership from the shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport and The shooting in Parkland.
The list of changes outlined in the sheriff's letter include close to 1,400 deputies receiving 8 hours of active shooter training, school resource officers reviving a week-long active shooter training, and changing the word "may" to "shall" when it comes to deputies responding to active threats.
Andrew Pollack, who's the father of 18-year-old Meadow who was killed, told CBS 4 there's one change he would like to see that's not listed in the letter.
"In life, someone needs to be held accountable and it's usually the top guy and he just shows failure after failure," Pollack said.
The father, who spent the holidays without his daughter, told us he wants Israel to be removed from office.
"A lot of times, if you have a failed system, it goes all the way up to the top and he has a failed system," Pollack said.
In the letter, Israel also mentioned two internal investigations that resulted in a sergeant and a deputy getting placed on restrictive duty.
Israel never mentioned why he sent the letter a day after Christmas.
Back on December 15, Governor-elect Ron DeSantis spoke about Israel and mentioned one of his concerns.
"With this guy, Cruz, there were multiple times where he should've been arrested for committing crimes but he wasn't and that's a big problem. So, we need to figure out why and I'm eagerly awaiting this report," DeSantis said.
His office didn't respond to our questions Wednesday about the letter and whether the incoming governor will suspend Israel.
But in mid-December, DeSantis told CBS 4, he's waiting for a report from the public safety commission to then see if he will take any action.
The chair of the public safety commission is unavailable until after the new year.
Another change is that the sheriff's office negotiated a deal with the Broward County School Board to get real‐time access during emergencies to the live camera feeds from the public schools. During the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, deputies were shown a recorded version which showed confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz in Building 12 after he had already left it.
The sheriff's office also created a Threat Assessment Unit to evaluated violent threats for potential Risk Protection Orders.
The also created anMSD Review Committee which will be responsible for implementing the Commission's recommendations and related follow-up actions.
