Four days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, area authorities, local elected leaders and school officials are slated to come together for a discussion on civic and school security in Putnam Tuesday afternoon.

Part of the meeting will be closed to the public and the media "to allow officials to discuss specific security issues that, if disclosed publicly, would imperil public safety," Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith said. It's happening at the Sheriff's Office at 3 County Center in Carmel, and members of the press are slated to arrive at about 1:15 p.m., Smith announced Monday. Here is part of a statement Smith released earlier in the day:

Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith reports that security procedures have been enhanced at schools and other pubic facilities in Putnam County following the tragic violence that occurred last Friday at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in nearby Newtown, Connecticut. The Sheriff emphasized that the increased security efforts are being implemented solely as a precaution and not in response to any specific threats. The Sheriff noted that comprehensive safety procedures have long been in place at area schools and public facilities, but that Friday's tragedy in neighboring Fairfield County has prompted heightened security awareness and increased preparedness in Putnam County, as it has in many communities across the nation.

"Putnam County law enforcement agencies, school officials and local government leaders are working together to take appropriate and prudent steps to guard against any potential copy-cat incident here," said the Sheriff. In the years following the infamous school shooting incident at Columbine, Colorado, law enforcement agencies and local school districts in Putnam County and across America developed plans and protocols to safeguard against and respond to similar acts of school violence. Since Columbine, new tactics and training have been devised and implemented for law enforcement officers for responding to situations of active shooters in schools.

By grim coincidence, even as the terrible events were unfolding in Newtown on Friday morning, the Putnam County Emergency Response Team ("ERT") happened to be assembled for regular training in Carmel, and team members were at that very moment engaged in a mock scenario of an active-shooter in a school. The ERT is comprised of specially trained and heavily armed officers from the Sheriff's Office and the Carmel and Kent Police Departments. When news broke of the Newtown shooting, the Putnam County ERT commander called Newtown Police and offered to have the ERT respond to the Sandy Hook school, but that response was not needed because Connecticut police had already secured the scene.