Meet the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office

Larimer County, located between Denver and the Wyoming border, spans a wide and diverse geographical area. Among its forestlands and open plains, Larimer County is home to about 330,000 residents. Larimer County Sheriff’s Office employs over 500 officers and support staff between its seven districts, supporting their communities and working closely alongside the local police departments.

Emergency Preparedness in the Schools

When Larimer County Criminalist, Colby, attended a laser scanner training about school safety last year, she realized the immense value in documenting school campuses to prepare for the unexpected. Yet, following the training – and after reflecting on how time-intensive laser scanner documentation would be – she realized that OSCR360 would provide a more efficient approach to school documentation and would achieve better results.

After receiving permission from her commanding officer, Colby began a pilot program documenting one of the seventeen local elementary schools. Throughout the process, the school has been highly cooperative and supportive, appreciating the importance of emergency preparedness. Colby is able to access the school campus after school hours, to avoid disruption to the students and staff.

In a world full of complicated technology, Colby has found OSCR360’s equipment to be extremely user-friendly. With OSCR, Colby photographed the total interior and exterior of the school building. Then, within the software, she added labels to each room, as well as the exterior doors, using OSCR’s points of interest (POI) feature.

With her demanding schedule, Colby has been pleased with how efficient OSCR is, explaining that it’s so much quicker than taking four photos to fully capture just one room. She is also grateful for the ease and simplicity that the software provides.

Looking Ahead

In the future, Colby intends to document the remaining 16 public schools within the district and download OSCR’s free viewer software onto each of the Deputies’ laptops. Her completed OSCR projects will allow LCSO to:

• Access the entire school campus remotely at any time, day or night.
• Virtually tour the building to gain tactical confidence and familiarity with the layout.
• Identify locations with potential safety concerns, such as barricades and hiding spots.
• Identify escape routes and emergency equipment access locations, such as defibrillators and fire extinguishers.
• Offer formal training sessions without the scheduling and cost constraints of accessing the physical location.
• Share and collaborate with other law enforcement agencies, first responders, and school district staff.
• Enhance agency response time and proficiency in the event of an emergency.
• Capture, organize and store notes, photos, data, and all additional digital evidence, post-incident.

When asked, “Why OSCR?” Colby responded that OSCR360:

“Gives a real-life perspective as if you were standing in the room. It takes one photograph to encompass an entire section in the viewable eye, rather than five, six photographs to document that same space…You can look at one photograph and spin it around…and you feel like you’re in that room…. A lot of time in photographs, you might not be able to get the ceiling and the floor…It’s very perspective-oriented for the viewers.”

Perspective and familiarity can make a world of difference in emergency pre-planning. Emergency preparedness with OSCR360 not only fosters a positive learning environment among students, families, and staff, but also equips first responders with the knowledge and preparation to respond to a situation where every second counts and every life matters.

For more information on OSCR360 & Larimer County visit: https://www.l-tron.com/resource-page/larimer-county-so-school-emergency-preparedness/ 

 

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