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Ohio Crime Lab Offers Drones To Boost School Safety Plans

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Ohio’s top law enforcement official is offering two things to school districts statewide to enhance their safety plans for their buildings. The goal is to make schools safer if a school shooting occurs.

Schools are already required to provide floor plans as part of their annual safety reports. Attorney General Mike DeWine is offering to loan districts one of six drones from the state's Bureau of Criminal Investigation to be used to take realistic pictures of their school buildings.

DeWine says those pictures will then be loaded into a safety database used by first responders, and they're free for schools.

"These photos will be accessible to law enforcement only and only for legitimate law enforcement purposes,” DeWine says.

DeWine’s office is also offering short videos to schools that give school employees information on how to prevent and deal with an active shooter.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment.