In the wake of the May 24 school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, New Canaan Police are requesting $110,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds in order to increase the presence of officers in public and private schools in New Canaan.
Dedicated school resource officers or “SROs” already are assigned to Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School, and NCPD has “liaison” officers at all schools in town and trainings for officers within schools, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski told members of the Police Commission at their June 15 regular meeting.
Yet the elementary and private schools in New Canaan “do not get a whole lot of police presence,” Krolikowksi said at the meeting, held at NCPD headquarters and via videoconference.
The chief said that given the school shooting in Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were fatally shot, he re-wrote a request for ARPA funds for the Police Department—originally a request for public education and enforcement for stolen vehicles and thefts from vehicles, a portable finger-printing device and secure cabinets—to hire an officer to check on each school every day.
The program would start in August when the new academic year begins and run through the 2022-23 school year, Krolikowski said. It likely would be an assignment covered by multiple officers and ideally would yield 16 additional school checks daily, he said.
The $110,000 allocation “would allow us to fund that and hire an officer dedicated just to patrolling and checking through all of the schools and that would be their sole focus,” he said.
“Although we do school checks, this would likely increase school checks to several thousand a year if all goes well,” Krolikowski added. “It will only enhance security. I spoke to the superintendent and he’s very supportive of it and I think it will be a great initiative to increase police presence at all our schools, including private, and I think help us as a midway measure to enhancing school security.”
Commission Chair Paul Foley, Secretary Jim McLaughlin and member Shekaiba Bennett voted 3-0 in favor of the request. It now moves on to the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council.
The commissioners asked whether police would address the proposal with private school leaders (yes)
McLaughlin said it was “a very good idea.”
“I think it’s a good idea, assuming the funding comes through, that one or two officers become familiar with the various schools, the layout, the personnel, the teachers, whether one or two take turns I personally think there’s a benefit to that that if there there were some sort of emergency whether it be a shooting or something else, they know the layout of the school,” McLaughlin said. “They know the people there. They know who to go to.”