• Home
  • Posts
  • Town Adds Second School Resource Officer to Greenwich High School

Town Adds Second School Resource Officer to Greenwich High School

greenwich-high-school-ghs

By Richard Kaufman

Last Friday, First Selectman and acting Police Commissioner, Peter Tesei, announced that the Greenwich Police Department will assign a second School Resource Officer (SRO) at Greenwich High School at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year.

“By adding a second SRO, police, school and town officials expect there will be an increase of positive outcomes that were previously achieved,” the town said in a statement. “More importantly, this assignment will address growing concerns about school safety and security within the community – concerns that exist across the nation.”

Capt. Robert Berry of the GPD said an interim SRO will be announced soon until the position is filled permanently. No announcement has been made as of press time on Wednesday.

“We’ve identified a certified seasoned officer that can go in in the short-term to fill that hole while we can go through the more lengthy and detailed process of selecting the second permanent SRO in collaboration with the school itself,” Berry said.

The interim officer will join Hayes Sgaglio, who is taking over for Carlos Franco. Franco stepped down from his position as GHS SRO after 11 years. He was the keynote speaker during last June’s commencement ceremony, and will now be working in the detective division for the GPD.

School and police officials hope to have the position permanently filled by the end of 2018. He or she will then train with the interim SRO until June, so three officers will likely be seen on campus at any given time during the second half of the school year.

“We take this position so seriously that we want to make sure it’s set up for success in the long term,” Berry said.

Berry said that while Franco was training Sgaglio last year, the school saw how much of an impact two officers had. Berry noted that the idea of adding another officer has been discussed in the past, but now seemed to be the right time to go ahead and do it.

“The issue has come up about the sheer size of that campus. It’s difficult for a single officer to effectively cover down the entire campus,” he said, adding that if one officer is needed elsewhere around town on a particular day, GHS will still have one SRO on duty.

“A lot of people really solely focus on the security aspect [of the SRO position], and obviously that’s an important component, but for us it’s a lot more than that,” Berry added.

Along with keeping the school community safe, the goals of the Greenwich SRO program include providing valuable resources to school staff and students, fostering positive relationships with youth and assisting in developing strategies to resolve problems affecting youth.

In the past, the SRO has been involved in the D.A.R.E Program, and has even given presentations on topics involving the criminal justice system and constitutional law. 

“[Being an SRO] is really an opportunity to positively impact the youth. There’s a lot of benefits from a lot of different facets, not just strictly that enhanced security role,” Berry said.

Related Posts
Loading...