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Osceola County deputies train for ‘worst-case scenarios’ before students return to the classroom

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — School resource officers in Osceola County are training for what they say is the unlikely event of a school shooting.

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The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office is participating in real-life active shooter training this week.

Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez said this is training they do throughout the year.

Watch: Osceola County Schools considers banning students from using cellphones in the classroom

Deputies are trained to react to and help save lives during a worst-case scenario.

“It’s realistic. You have people, screaming, people running, it’s chaotic,” Lopez said. “It’s set up to cause confusion for the deputy. You have someone screaming and running at you. What if that’s the killer?”

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Officers are training on Osceola County school campuses, so they are familiar with the schools they need to protect.

Deputies will also be using a real-time crime center to help with school safety.

Read: Back to school: Here’s when schools start across Central Florida

“We can plug into the camera feeds at our schools,” Lopez said. “This will help us identify and very quickly locate where the shooter is and eliminate that threat.”

The sheriff’s office will also test an artificial intelligence-based gun detection system in schools, that would alert deputies to the presence of a gun on campus.

See more in the video above.

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