About L.I. Safe Schools
Long Island Safe Schools was developed by Officer James Greco, who is also the owner of Long Island Security Consultants and Long Island K-9 Service. Officer Greco is a 19 year veteran of law enforcement, has 33 years of canine experience, and has been disturbed by the dramatic increase of daily violence in our schools on Long Island and throughout the country. Long Island Safe Schools addresses the many facets of security issues that affect our schools on a daily basis. Officer Greco is an advocate of safe schools and has been pro-active by presenting over 50 Drug/Weapons Awareness Programs in Long Island Schools, as well as providing Security Consulting, Security Officers, Vehicle Security Patrols, K-9 Narcotic/Weapons Detection Services, and walkthrough and handheld Garrett Metal Detectors to various school districts. L.I. Safe Schools can be accessed by school administrators, teachers, PTA Groups, students, and parents by logging on to www.lisecurity.com and clicking on the link to L.I. Safe Schools. An informational request form can be completed addressing any security concerns you may have with your school and Officer James Greco will promptly respond to the questions asked, provide his recommendations on your security concerns, and possible solutions to the problem. This website will contain many security tips for schools, teachers, and students, along with new breaking news stories of security issues that may have been missed by our readers concerning Long Island Schools. This is a free, no obligation, safe and pro-active security suggestion that may be able to deter possible security issues at any given school. If a school thinks that they may need any additional assistance with security issues, we will be able to help within 12 to24 hours of our notification. We are also soliciting businesses to offset the running costs. These sponsors’ logos will be displayed on our L.I. Safe Schools webpage so we know what people and businesses are serious about keeping our schools safe and free from drugs, weapons, and violence.
What is a "School Safety Assessment"?
Professional school security / school safety assessments provide educators an independent assessment by school security professionals of existing positive safety measures in place and recommendations for building upon those measures with school safety improvements at the building and district levels. School leaders use our security assessments as a risk management tool for reducing crime and violence threats, risks, and potential liability school-community relations tool to demonstrate a district's commitment to school security prior to a crisis.
School safety assessments are district-specific to address your unique concerns and needs, not pre-packaged comments and forms with a few name changes. School security assessments are designed to help educators be proactive, not reactive, with school safety.
And at Long Island Security Consultants, we believe that it is important for school security assessments to reflect both the positive school safety measures already in place at the time of the evaluation, as well as the areas for continued school safety planning and improvement. Our final assessment reports are designed to be used as a strategic planning tool, not as an attack on a school's credibility and management abilities.
School administrators know that school safety can no longer be viewed as a grant-funded luxury that can only be addressed proactively if one-time grant funds exist. Time and time again, lessons have taught us that school safety is a "pay now or pay later" situation, with it being better to invest proactively up-front versus having significant recovery costs, lawsuit losses, and long-term damage to your school-community relations if you wait until after a crisis occurs.
School safety assessment final safety report
Findings and recommendations are submitted in a final written report to school officials. School security assessment reports reflect both the positive school safety measures already in place at the time of the evaluation, as well as the areas for continued school safety planning and improvement.
Our security assessments provide detailed recommendations. Some of these recommendations can be done immediately and others will require a longer time to plan and implement. The final security assessment report can be used to deal with both short-term improvements and as a strategic plan for improvements during upcoming school months and over multiple upcoming years. A part of an overall program evaluation to periodically measure progress and make revisions in established school security plans and programs.
A final assessment report can be utilized as a public relations tool for demonstrating the schools commitment to have a thorough, external, and professionally completed assessment of the school's security and emergency preparedness components of their overall prevention, intervention, and school safety program.
Should we expect school safety assessment recommendations to focus on school security hardware and manpower?
As security professionals, we recognize the unique needs of elementary and secondary schools, along with their differences from other environments when applying security concepts. We understand that educators wish to take a balanced, rational approach to improving security without adopting a knee-jerk, siege-like mentality. In conducting an assessment, we approach the process with the idea that security needs and strategies often vary community to community, district to district, and even school to school within a district.
While factors identified in our assessments for some districts may result in recommendations for security equipment and/or staffing, we believe that even then, these tools are a supplement to, but not a substitute for an overall comprehensive security program. A predisposition toward equipment or any other single-approach is unfair, and potentially unnecessarily and costly to schools. A camera, for example, could cost you unnecessary expenses - or it could save your school thousands of dollars. An assessment of your unique security needs would help you manage your limited resources effectively.
What is evaluated in school safety assessment / School security assessments?
Areas reviewed in a professional school security assessment by Long Island Security Consultants can include:
- School emergency and crisis preparedness planning
- Security crime and violence prevention policies and procedures
- Physical security measures including access control,
communications capabilities, intrusion detection systems,
perimeter security, after hour’s security, physical design,
and many related areas
- Professional development training needs related to school
safety and emergency planning
- Examination of support service roles in school safety, security,
and emergency planning including facilities operations, food
services, transportation services, pupil services, physical and
mental health services, technology services, and associated
school departments
- School security and school police staffing, operational practices
and related services
- Personnel and internal security
- School-community collaboration, school and public safety agency
partnerships, and school-community relations issues on school
safety, and much more!!!
What methods are used in school safety and school security assessments?
We do not believe that a 10-minute "walk-through" of a school can solely identify the security needs and appropriate practices needed to improve school security. Our law enforcement security experience has allowed us to create a structured, specialized assessment process which includes, but is not necessarily limited to; Analysis of policies, procedures, emergency and crisis guidelines, and other safety-related documents, examination of physical facilities and grounds, present security measures implemented video cameras and monitors, and visitor procedures.
As consultants who have first-hand experience working in school districts, we also display a great deal of flexibility and concern not to disrupt the educational process while working on-site in schools with our clients. The number of evaluators can range from one, two-person consultant team, to multiple teams of evaluators depending upon the size of the school district and nature of the assessment as cooperatively arranged in advance with the client district. Lead assessment evaluators/consultants have over 20 years each of full-time experience in the law enforcement safety field and every project is led by our president, James Greco.
What do school safety assessments cost?
Costs for assessments are based on the number of sites to be evaluated, on-site time, pre-assessment material review and completion of final report time.