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The Brownsville Independent School District has taken delivery of six new Chevrolet Tahoe 4×4 Special Service SUVs, the latest in a series of security upgrades across the district.
BISD Police Chief Oscar Garcia showed off the new units at department headquarters on Price Road after their arrival earlier this spring from Conroe. He said district and state funds paid for the units, each costing $56,910 for a total just under $350,000, as part of the state’s and BISD’s response to the Uvalde school massacre more than a year ago.
Not surprisingly, the units have state-of-the-art capabilities from front to back, including a high-powered LED spotlight and side and rear illumination features. They’re the same units used by the Texas Department of Public Safety and law enforcement throughout the state, Garcia said.
The vehicles have communication capabilities with partner agencies throughout Cameron and Hidalgo counties. In fact they have so many features that training will be required to get everyone up to speed.
“These are top, top notch,” Garcia said, briefly accelerating to demonstrate. “They have inter-operability embedded. If need be, at the flick of a switch, we can be in communication with what we call our partner agencies throughout the Valley, Cameron and Hidalgo counties,” Garcia said,
“This is the unique thing about school policing today. You have to collaborate with your partners at the city and the county. We’re together in the same unified response.”
Garcia said each unit will be equipped with a mobile data unit just like the department’s other patrol units, giving the officer access to surveillance cameras on every campus throughout the district.
“God forbid there’s ever an incident on a campus, they can actually log in, and it’s a live feed,” he said, adding that the mobile data units are en route and should be installed before school starts in the fall.
