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School Action for Emergencies Program (SAFE)
- The goal of the School Action for Emergencies (SAFE) Plan is to help keep children and educators safe.
- Youth has been one of the RCMP’s strategic priorities since 1999. The RCMP has developed a number of initiatives such as the SAFE Plan to assist in helping young people stay safe in their communities.
- The April 2007 announcement of the program provided communities with the assurance that proactive measures were being put in place to respond to potentially tragic situations like those that occurred in Columbine, Taber, Dawson College in Montreal and most recently in Virginia.
- Through the SAFE Plan, police officers will have access to blue prints, aerial photos, and safety information contained in a computer database developed by the RCMP Chief Information Officer Sector for all schools within RCMP jurisdictions. These tools will better prepare law enforcement and other agencies to respond to emergency situations.
- The national roll out of the SAFE Plan will help standardize lock-down and other procedures across the country and will assist law enforcement agencies to integrate and coordinate their responses.
- The SAFE Plan is modeled after the Peel Regional Police School/Police Emergency Action Response (S.P.E.A.R.) Program, a computer database and proactive emergency preparedness plan developed after the tragic events at Columbine.
- The SAFE Plan can be adapted to several situations other than tragic occurrences.
- To date the RCMP has collected and input data on over 300 schools in RCMP jurisdictions throughout Canada. The overall goal to have SAFE Plans completed in every school within RCMP jurisdictions across the country in the coming months.
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