CFISD police and emergency management summarize security layers, audits and staffing pressures

CFISD police and the district office of emergency management presented an update on Feb. 6 describing the department’s staffing, daily operations, school checks and a multi‑phase safety audit required by the Texas School Safety Center.

Chief Mendez said the police department has grown since 2012 and currently staffs an authorized complement of 117 officers organized into two district zones, patrol shifts, investigators and a mental‑health intervention team. The department reported conducting 19,468 “safe‑school checks” at elementaries in the first semester and responding to about 61,283 total calls for service in the same period; roughly 1,961 of those were classified as criminal offenses. Average emergency response time to high‑priority calls was reported at approximately 3 minutes 20 seconds.

Mendez and emergency-management director Scott Hudson described the district’s layered security model—physical hardening (fencing, vestibules, locked doors and card access), interior safety technologies (panic buttons, classroom phones), behavioral‑threat assessment teams, a mental‑health intervention team and the anonymous “CyFair tip line,” which logged 1,433 tips in the first semester. The department said it follows the Texas School Safety Center templates and reported the intruder‑detection audits and a TEA vulnerability assessment that evaluated district and campus readiness.

Hudson described the TEA vulnerability assessment (Jan. 28–30) that deployed assessors to evaluate emergency planning, school climate, mental‑health supports, communications, first‑responder access and facility security; the district said 55 campuses had been visited to date and corrective actions are being tracked. The safety‑and‑security committee—made of district staff, local first responders and parents—provides oversight and recommendations and holds public meetings to review emergency plans.

Trustees praised officers’ community outreach, noting the department completed 412 school presentations in the first semester for more than 33,500 students, staff and parents. Several trustees raised costs and staffing shortages—particularly for campus officers—and asked how legislative proposals or funding changes might help; department leaders said recruiting and retention are ongoing challenges and that state allotments proposed in the legislative session would not fully cover local police staffing needs.

Less critical: the department described community programs such as summer camps and stadium signage promoting the anonymous tip line.