Iberville Sheriff’s Office, Dow partner for tactical shield purchase

No law enforcement agency across America wants a repeat of last year’s mass shooting in Uvalde Texas, which is why Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stassi took a proactive measure.

With help from Dow Louisiana Operations, the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office acquired 50 tactical mini shields last week for school resource officers and road deputies to use in an encounter with an active shooter.

A $34,000 donation from Dow paved the way for the IPSO to purchase the shields. 

“They’ve been a good partner,” Stassi said. “When I told them that we were using it to save lives of students and school, personnel, they were glad to do it.”

The shields will help prevent loss of lives when deputies encounter an active shooter, the sheriff said.

“Metal shields can stop a 223 round and a 308 round, so for all the SROs and all the deputies I want to make sure that when something happens at one of these schools, for example, I don’t want to hear that they’re waiting on SWAT teams,” he said.  “I expect them to be ready to extinguish the threat and take care of the children.”

The shooting last May at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas took the lives of 19 children and two adults – the deadliest shooting ever at a Texas school – has raised the level of concern about safety at schools and other large crowd settings across the nation.

The shields will bring an added layer of protection for students and school personnel in the event such a tragedy occurs in Iberville Parish, Stassi said.

“It’s a piece of equipment we hope we never have to use,” he said.