In light of the most recent horrific school shooting, which killed 17 students and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Superintendent Philip Thornton and Warwick Police Chief Stephen M. McCartney spoke on Friday about the city’s preparedness for a similar event should it occur in Rhode Island.

“The safety of our students and staff is a serious responsibility and of paramount concern to all of us,” Thornton wrote in an email to parents and guardians following the shooting, which occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 14. “Each of our schools maintains a safety plan that is reviewed and revised annually. All schools in the district run periodic safety drills.”

Thornton mentioned how every school in the district is outfitted with security buzzer entry systems and security cameras on the exterior doors. He also mentioned that each school staffs a safety team, which includes a School Resource Officer, a member of the Warwick Police Department specifically assigned and trained to keep staff and students safe.

“We certainly try to think of everything we need to think of. I know this department focuses heavily on active shooters. We have a heavy presence dealing with schools,” said McCartney. “It all starts right there. And then, depending on the situation, we can bring all sorts of resources to bear fairly quickly because of the way we’re organized.”

McCartney said that the department does at least one active shooting drill a year to shore up their standard operating procedures for such a situation. However, McCartney also admitted that anybody who claims to be adequately prepared for an active shooter situation is being optimistic at best.

“We all want to say we’re adequately prepared, but no one is adequately prepared for that kind of chaos,” he said. “I don’t care how well prepared they are. We all train realistically, but there’s nothing that will replicate the actual incident.”

To help cut down on confusion during chaotic events, Warwick became the first municipality in the state of Rhode Island to join Mutual Link, which is a communications network that, in Warwick’s situation, connects audio and video communications between the Warwick Fire Department, Warwick Police Department and Kent County Hospital. Warwick Mall is patched into the system as well.

Most recently, the school department joined that system as well, creating a widespread communication network that enables a quicker spread of information to first responders and administrators in the event of an emergency situation.

“All Warwick district and school administrators and front office staff have been trained in the use of this system,” Thornton’s email said. “Through the system, educators have access to a phone app called Rave, which allows any adult to alert the Warwick Mutual Link network of a crisis in real time within each school campus.”

Thornton described how the system creates a “geo field” for each school, enabling users of the system and the Rave app to appear as dots on a map, which can help first responders identify where people are in a building and throughout the entirety of the incident.

McCartney said that Mutual Link allows first responders to ascertain an “area of focus” when dealing with the crisis, giving them an “extra ring of intelligence” to be able to coordinate evacuations and key in on which areas to avoid and identify where a perpetrator (or perpetrators) of a shooting may be located.

“If it’s an active shooter, the concept there is not to wait for the S.W.A.T. team, it’s for the officers themselves to respond and immediately try to locate in on where this individual is,” McCartney said. “The principle behind that is to neutralize this individual as soon as possible.”

Thornton said in the email that members from the city’s emergency response teams, from both the fire and police departments, would be attending the March 6 meeting of the School Committee. He invited everyone else to attend and learn more about safety and prevention efforts.

“Each crisis is unique,” Thornton wrote. “The best preparation for an emergency is careful planning, practice, execution and evaluation. Our safety plans, Mutual Link system, and related training have been designed in partnership with experts in the field and set a strong foundation for crisis prevention and intervention, as well as response.”