FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Three school threats in a short amount of time have many students and parents in South Florida on edge.
When threats are made in Broward County, they are handled in the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) located inside Broward Sheriff's Office headquarters.
The Real Time Crime Center is a 24-hour, seven day a week, nonstop operation that tackles threats as they come in.
“We’ve investigated hundreds of cases up here and made numerous arrests,” Lt. Greg Molamphy, with the BSO’s Threat Assessment Unit, said.
Among the latest arrests, a 12-year-old girl from Falcon Cove Middle School accused of posting two threats on Snapchat last Friday.
Both threats made the rounds on social media. One of them was a hit list, targeting classmates, police said.
Monday morning, students at nearby Cypress Bay High School were put on lockdown after the campus received a threat by email, warning of a shooting.
Deputies were called to the same school last week for a threat, and to a different school in Lauderdale Lakes, where students were evacuated.
Late Monday night, deputies announced that an arrest had been made regarding the threats to Cypress Bay.
Deputies said a 16-year-old junior at the school had been identified as the person who sent the threatening messages both last Friday and Monday.
He is facing multiple charges.
“The consequences of making threats are very serious,” Molamphy said.
Each threat is filtered through a Threat Assessment Unit that uses countless manpower hours by BSO detectives, as well as the FBI, which almost always leads to criminal charges against the child or adult responsible, regardless of whether the individual was serious or not.
"We assume that every threat is real, because the one threat we don't take for real could be something bad," Molamphy said.
The RTCC has access to more than 10,000 cameras set up within the Broward School’s system that provides a live feed.
Broward County Public Schools released a statement Monday to Local 10 News saying it’s also part of the district’s mission to work with law enforcement and take these threats seriously. The statement read, in part:
“Broward County Public Schools takes all matters involving student safety very seriously. The district works closely with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement agencies to investigate threats involving our students, staff and schools. To ensure students and members of the community are aware of the serious consequences of making threats using social media and other platforms, the district worked with Chief Judge Jack Tuter and Judge Elijah Williams of the 17th Judicial Circuit to create an informational video. We encourage parents and guardians to watch the video with their child and to monitor their online activities.”