Schools database guides police in a crisis

Six years ago, state authorities set about creating a database containing critical information about every school in the state.

What they came up with is a program called RapidResponder -- think Google for Jack Bauer on the TV show "24" -- that includes every Washington high school and more than half of all elementary schools. Prompted by the Virginia Tech shooting, state officials are looking at funding similar studies of state universities.

Even before the 2001 pilot project was launched, Gov. Chris Gregoire had taken a strong interest in getting better information to law enforcement during a crisis.

As state attorney general, Gregoire had been given the task of finding the lessons from the Columbine killings, which occurred eight years ago today. She found a lack of information handicapped the police response.

"When law enforcement arrived, one person said on the radio '(The shooters) are in the cafeteria,' " Gregoire said. "It did no good because no one knew where the cafeteria was."

The $15 million mapping effort, Gregoire said, is designed to avoid a similar failure should a crisis happen in Washington.

The database contains floor plans, photos and contact information for each school. Officers can access the database through the Internet or on preloaded laptop computers, said Jim Finnell, president and chief executive of Prepared Response Inc., the Seattle firm that developed the system.

"When the preventive things don't work, there are two things first responders need," Finnell said. "They need information, and they need it right now."

Federal Way police spokeswoman Stacy Flores said officers used the system Thursday when they were called to Todd Beamer High School, where a student was caught with three loaded guns he intended to sell.

The Legislature is considering allotting $5.3 million to the program, enough to finish studying the remaining elementary and middle schools.

"I think we're going to have to ask the next question -- should we be looking at mapping our universities and colleges?" Gregoire said.

But, she said, funding would have to wait at least until the next year's legislative session.