Virginia Tech massacre

The tragedy of Virginia Tech's massacre has no doubt settled in and people are hunting for solutions to the myriad of issues that the tragedy has brought to light. I certainly feel for the victims and their families (they are often the unseen victims). Hopefully some good will come out of this. Policing needs to constantly evolve and improve in order to better satisfy our mantra of public service and protection. Maybe we'll see better media relations, better identification and care of the mentally ill, and better tactics (although who could have predicted chained doors in Active Shooter training).

In the wake of the situation, I was featured in a PoliceOne.com article by Associate Editor Rachel Fretz (The Big Picture: Working withg the Media) http://www.policeone.com/media-relations/articles/1227908/ , authored my Weinblatt's Tips column (Tips for major incident media relations in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting) http://www.policeone.com/writers/columnists/RichardWeinblatt/articles/1238549/

I also did an approx. three minute interview on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 in the downtown Orlando studios with Central Florida News 13. You can check out the video of the interview below.


I was on the firing range for Seminole Community College with the day law enforcement academy (I'm a firearms instructor - hence the red firearms instructor shirt you see in the interview) and then I had to give an exam to the night law enforcement academy folks at the main campus, so I was trying to figure out how to fit this interview in when the Central Florida News 13 folks called. Luckily they were able to have me come to their downtown Orlando studios at 8:00 pm Wednesday night (after I gave the exam) to tape it for their news loop. Several days on the range gave me that sun burned and wind blown "look."

The folks at Central Florida News 13 are always pleasant to deal with and it was good to see anchor Ybeth Bruzual again. Although, I didn't see her in person this time as she was in Studio 13-A and I was in studio 13-B. But we got to chat through the vido and audio feed. As she and I discussed, we always seem to meet after some tragedy. It's the nature of our respective businesses.

Hopefully, the tide turns for the Virginia Tech community.