The scenes from Littleton, Colo., yesterday raised the concerns of local parents, school administrators, law enforcement officials and the general public alike.

Could it happen here? And, if it did, would our public safety agencies be prepared?

The answer is a qualified "yes" from city and county law enforcement officials. The county SWAT team, made up of members of the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department and the Warsaw Police Department, has trained in a number of the county schools, as well as in hostage rescue and negotiations, according to SWAT Commander Paul Schmitt.

"As a team, we've been in a number of schools in the county and we are familiar with their layouts," Schmitt said, declining to identify the schools by name. "We've had meetings with various school officials to develop plans to deal with situations if they were to occur here."

Kosciusko County Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine said Tuesday in light of the events in Colorado, more planning meetings will be conducted with the administrators of the county's school corporations.

"We've already gotten the Warsaw schools to implement some additional security measures - locking most doors to limit access and controlling visitors," he said. "I'm sure we'll be going over those procedures again in light of (Tuesday's) events."

Capt. Steve Foster of the Warsaw Police Department has also been working with Warsaw Community Schools to develop appropriate crisis procedures. In the wake of yesterday's tragedy, he said, those plans will take on added significance, but the way he goes about his job won't change.

"From my position, I'll continue to do what I have been doing," he said. "I've been working with the schools in planning how to handle situations like this. Those plans include how to identify intruders and what things need to be done in situations like what happened yesterday."

As far as prevention of such tragedies, Foster said, he's not sure what can be done, from a law enforcement perspective, to prevent them from occurring.

"Specifically, I'm not sure anything can be done to stop what happened yesterday," he said. "If you have an individual or individuals intent on action like that, the best you can do is to stop them quickly."

As for complaints heard in the national media over how the Littleton and Jefferson County law enforcement SWAT team responded to the situation in Columbine High School, Foster said, he is hesitant to question their actions at this point.

"I'm not in a position to second guess what they did or didn't do," he said. "I don't know when they went in.

"As far as what we saw on TV - with the SWAT members helping to get some of those kids out - we don't know what other SWAT teams' members were doing inside the school," he said.

Schmitt agreed, saying each hostage situation like the one Tuesday is unique and can't always be predicted. He said it was the proper move for the SWAT members on the scene to take care before storming into the school.

"These are situations where there are a lot of variables, so you just have to play it by ear," he said. "But removing the victims or storming the perpetrators must only be done when it can be done safely. It doesn't do anybody any good to get more people injured or killed." [[In-content Ad]]