SPD interim police chief focuses on preventing future school shootings – KIRO 7 News Seattle

Rahr says she is focused on getting to the root cause of the problem.

“It’s much harder to prevent, and it requires a lot more trust, first between the adults who manage the facilities and then between the police and the students and school staff,” Rahr said.

There will be more patrol cars, but Rahr also wants to bring back the number of SROs (school resource officers) on campus, which the district suspended in 2020.

“I want to ask people: Can we hit the reset button? Can we get back to the negotiating table? Can we start talking about this? How do we do this together? Schools can’t do this alone. Police can’t do this alone.”

When planning the next school year, Rahr’s stated goal is to make contacts and get to know the students.

“If you’re not there for safety, not for enforcement, but just to get to know the students and build a relationship and open communication, you’re going to hear that this is happening. These two people are having an argument. This is probably going to explode,” she explained.

The search for the suspect in Murphy-Paine’s death continues.

Although a video of the brawl went viral on social media, Police Chief Rahr told KIRO 7 that Instagram was not enough for an arrest warrant.

“We need to gather information that we can validate in order to get search warrants, to get cell phone records, video feeds and the like,” she added. “If the search warrants are not valid or we take evidence that was obtained without a search warrant, we risk the case not being successful.”