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Message from Chief Mike Tusken

The Duluth Police Department share the concerns of our community regarding the threats to school safety. DPD is committed to providing a safe learning environment for students and staff in our community. Each school year, the Duluth Police Department works in collaboration with ISD-709 to investigate ALL threats to student safety that come to our attention.

This is a process including identifying the source of the threat, conducting interviews, and assessing the credibility of the threat. Threat assessment is done by identifying who is responsible, understanding the nature of the threat, the intentions, the ability to act upon it, and exploring intervention strategies to prevent it. Intervention may include increased police and ISD-709 staff presence, counseling resources, school discipline, or sometimes, referral into the juvenile justice system by leveraging the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office – or all of these strategies.

For decades, DPD has been collaborating with ISD-709 to ensure safe schools and here is some of the more recent initiatives enhancing safe schools:

• 1990’s-Present: Having a robust School Resource Officer Program. School Resource Officers are assigned in the middle and high schools and assist at the elementary schools as needed. We know that having the SRO’s in the school improves accessibility for students and staff to address and intervene and coach, guide, and mentor.
• 2013-Partnering and advocating for close campuses in the District.
• 2018-Secured a grant to enhance security and safety in schools.
• 2019-Utilizing Everbridge Public Warning system to communicate with all public and private school administrators’ instantly to best address real-time threats.   

Our number one priority has been, and will always be, the safety and security of our community. DPD will continue to monitor this incident and we will provide further information as it becomes available.  

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