(Photo Credit: KDKA)
Reporting Harold Hayes
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The University of Pittsburgh will hire 20 new police officers immediately in an effort to ramp up security after the District Attorney’s review of March’s Western Psych shooting rampage.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said the new police officers will be stationed at every UPMC campus.
Zappala reviewed UPMC’s new security proposals and also said he plans to enhance physical security procedures and possibly implement the use of Tasers.
The Western Psych gunman had a little more than 5 minutes to get wherever he wanted in the building, according to Zappala.
Most importantly though, Zappala wanted to address dealing with an armed threat.
“An issue, as far as I was concerned, which was not negotiable,” he said. “Was that there would be an armed presence, uniformed or otherwise, on these campuses.”
UPMC also suggested having nurses wand patients as part of its new security measures.
Zappala also said the results of an OSHA investigative report show Western Psych used to average one incident of violence per week, but is now on track to exceed two incidents of violence per week for 2012.
Knives have been found since March 8 at Western Psych and a gun was found in the patient area two weeks prior to March 8.
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