‘I Frankly Have Had It’: Commissioner Pushes for Police Access to Video Cameras at New Canaan Schools

A member of the volunteer body that oversees the Police Department said Tuesday that he wanted to reinvigorate a push for access to video cameras that monitor inside New Canaan schools.

Police Commissioner Paul Foley asked for an update on “monitoring inside the schools” during the group’s regular meeting.

Told by Police Chief Leon Krolikowski that “We don’t have access yet,” Foley asked, “Are we anywhere advancing that progress?”

According to Krolikowski, the superintendent of schools had promised a memo in response to one from NCPD but hadn’t produced it yet.

“Could we ask him again to have a memo?” Foley said at the meeting, held in the New Canaan Police Department. “The Police Commission would like to see his memo at our next meeting. I think we should sort of force that issue. We would like to see his answer to that because as a school safety issue it falls within our purview and we are concerned about it.”

Krolikowski noted that under state law, the Board of Education itself is responsible for school safety.

“We can be advisory and make suggestions and ask them about best practices,” Krolikowski said.

Both NCHS and Saxe Middle School have a police officer—or “school resource officer”—assigned to them, and those officers are on site and bolstering the district’s own campus security personnel. Police checks on New Canaan Public Schools are up this year, officials have said.

Foley noted that the request of the superintendent for a response memo regarding access to the video monitoring was made more than two years ago.

“I frankly have had it,” he said. “Otherwise maybe we go down to the Board of Ed and do a little presentation ourselves. I don’t think he wants that.”

The comments come as some in town advocate for unannounced sweeps for narcotics by the NCPD K-9 dog, in the wake of the heroin-related arrest of a NCHS basketball coach. That coach is no longer employed by the school district.

The Police Commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting is May 16.