Gates Mills Police Department

Proud to Serve…Sworn to Protect

From Your Police Department:

As I am sure everyone is aware, on Wednesday, February 14, 2018 in Parkland Florida, a terrible tragedy occurred at a local high school. As a result of this unfortunate incident, I thought it would be appropriate to address school safety here in the Village.

While Gates Mills is a relatively small community, we do have of six schools here in the Village. Gates Mills Elementary, Gates Mills Environmental Education Center, St Francis of Assisi, and Gilmour Academy Lower, Middle and Upper (High School). Although we do not have designated personnel assigned to any individual school, Officers are very diligent in their patrols of school grounds during the day. Further, Officers routinely conduct foot patrols in the schools to have an occasional police presence.

State law requires that each school provide us with their most recent school safety plans and conduct practice drills at a minimum of three times per school year. At least one of the drills must include an evacuation drill. I am pleased to report all of the schools far exceed all the minimum requirements.

In addition, Ptl. Eric Kimball is a certified ALICE Instructor (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate) who leads classes for school staff members to help them prepare more proactively to handle the threat of an aggressive intruder. Ptl. Arch Kimbrew will also become a certified ALICE Instructor when he completes his training in early March.

Nothing is more important to us than the safety of your children. I want to assure you that the police department has tremendous relationships and works very closely with all of our schools here in the Village, but we need your help too. The best defense against school violence is to not ignore anything you see or hear that is concerning and to say something, so we can investigate. Please be sure to pay close attention to social media as we all know kids use it regularly to communicate with each other and to post things that are happening.

If anyone would like to discuss this topic with me, do not hesitate to contact me.

Until next month – Proud to Serve…Sworn to Protect

Yours in Service,

Gregg Minichello

Chief of Police

(440) 423-4405 ext. 132

gminichello@gatesmillsvillage.com