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Greer Police Chief Dan Reynolds is adding another layer of preventive protection at the police department, courthouse and magistrate's court with bulletproof glass, windows, drywalls and a steel door.
City Council may well have approved bulletproofing regardless as all department heads and council seemed pleased with the budget implications.
Bulletproofing the glass of the magistrate’s office of the lobby of the municipal building, windows surrounding the police department, drywall and adding a steel door was approved for $135,754. That was $6,754 more than the $129,000 projection. Cely Construction of Greenville had the winning bid.
Roofing for the Tryon Recreation Center had only IES Coatings of Greer bid $29,276. That was $10,724 less than the projected $40,000.
Greer came out with a total savings of $3,970.
Police Chief Dan Reynolds told council, “There are more attacks coming from within and outside the courthouse. This will improve security and the steel door will limit access to the front offices.”
Reinforcing the drywalls, said Reynolds, will add extra layers of security without changing the appearance of the facilities. “The public won’t even notice the difference,” Reynolds said.
City officials said the new bulletproof glass will be able to withstand a 5.56-caliber round fired by an M16 assault rifle.
Reynolds said a shooting in the parking lot of the Greenville Law Enforcement Center in September 2014 was the impetus for the bulletproofing request. Since that event shootings within police stations have been recorded in Colorado, Kansas, California, New Jersey and Kansas.