MINOT, ND ( KXNET ) — North Dakota law enforcement officers will be undergoing training to help them better understand if a threat to a school is credible or not.

Several schools in our state have already been victims of swatting. That’s when someone calls in a fake bomb threat to trigger a large police response.

According to the Nationwide K-12 School Shooting Database, there have been 122 school swatting incidents this year alone.

Minot Public School Resource Officer Brian Williams says taking an active approach to safety is how threats don’t turn into tragedies.

“Get to the school, do a perimeter check, make sure everything sounds like where it should be. Once I get inside the school, greet the staff, update the staff themselves on anything they should know about on any safety concerns, things like that. Just passing on a lot of information,” said Williams.

According to Williams, when any threat is made to a school over the phone or social media, school resource officers work alongside school faculty until the matter is resolved. Williams says it’s all about being vigilant.

“Like to kind of make it a partnership between the department and the schools, just to come up with a solution to those problems, just got to stay mentally ready, physically prepared for any dangers that might arise,” said Williams.

School resource officers for Minot Public Schools will be conducting outside threat training with school staff and faculty in November.

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