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Florida senator files bill requiring FBI to report all threats to local law enforcement


Florida senator files bill requiring FBI to report all threats to local law enforcement (Source: WEAR-TV)
Florida senator files bill requiring FBI to report all threats to local law enforcement (Source: WEAR-TV)
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Thursday Senator Rick Scott introduced legislation requiring the FBI to submit reports about all threats, including potential school shooters, to local law enforcement.

This comes after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 people dead on February 14, 2018.

After this massacre, the FBI issued a public apology for failing to properly investigate the Parkland shooter and mishandling tips it got about Nikolas Cruz's plans.

Scott said the FBI received several tips about Cruz making threats, but the agency never acted on them.

"Following the tragedy we all learned of repeated failures to properly investigate and act on specific tips about the shooter weeks earlier," Scott said at a press conference Thursday.

Now he wants to hold the FBI accountable by introducing the 'Threat Information Protocol For Sharing' or TIPS Act.

The bill would require the FBI to report tips from their national hotline to local law enforcement agencies by submitting monthly reports including the name of the individual, details of the threat and if the FBI took any action.

"I don't want to be caught in some sort of bureaucratic trap. I want them to pass the information on and we'll help them investigate," said Escambia County School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas.

Thomas said he wants to know about any potential threats sooner than later.

"I wanna know that tonight because I'll use my law enforcement partners, we'll go to their house tonight. We'll get ahead of that. We won't wait and react to it once it happens, but I have to have the information," said Thomas.

Right now the school district works with local law enforcement agencies to investigate any concerns.

All said they'd rather learn about the threats and get to the bottom of them, than not know about them at all.

"We're gonna take that seriously. We have a lot of kids in these schools and we'll put all the resources necessary to go up and investigate that threat," said Officer Mike Wood with the Pensacola Police Department.

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