Officials Respond After Internal Document Is Made Public, Causes Panic In School
Sep 19, 2019, 1:38 PM | Updated: 1:41 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Officials with the Davis County Sheriff’s Office have responded after a document was shared on social media and caused a panic.
It should never should have been made public, authorities said.
The document was a “Be On the Lookout,” or BOLO, for a Davis School District ex-employee who reportedly told his co-worker he wanted to see what it feels like to murder someone.
The sheriff’s office said BOLOs are used between law enforcement agencies and partners. However, the document somehow got into the hands of students, who then reportedly shared it on social media.
Authorities said they want to make some clarifications on the report, according to a DCSO statement.
Officials said the person referenced in the BOLO has not committed a crime and has not been arrested. However, due to the alleged harmful comments, the sheriff’s office created the BOLO to share with other law enforcement agencies. Details are only made public if there’s an immediate concern for the community’s safety.
The person who allegedly made the comments was fired from the school district, authorities said.
The Davis School District in a statement said it is standard practice to share sensitive information with administrators and to keep that information confidential. District officials apologized that the standard wasn’t upheld in this case.
“The information involved a former employee who was dismissed from employment after safety concerns arose,” said Christopher Williams with the Davis School District. “In the process, the district reached out to law enforcement, and they have conducted their own investigation.”
The case has been handed off to a federal agency. Authorities are not looking for help in locating this person or distributing information, according to the sheriff’s office.
DCSO officials said they’ve identified solutions to prevent this type of incident from happening again.
Portions of this report came from The Associated Press.