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Police chief praises full-time SROs, seeks small operational upgrades and expands bicycle patrol
Summary
The town's police chief told the Board of Education he supports the district's full-time School Resource Officer program and plans to make modest operational improvements — including a dedicated director of school security, exterior room-number labeling for faster emergency response, and a five-officer bicycle patrol — to strengthen school safety and community engagement.
The police chief told the Old Saybrook Board of Education that policing and school engagement must work together, praising the district’s full-time School Resource Officer (SRO) program and promising small, targeted changes to improve response and prevention.
The chief said accessing schools gives police contact with “all of our students, all of our young ones in town and all of our families,” and described the SRO program as “really great” for providing immediate, on-site response and reassurance to students and families. He told the board he intends to name the police captain who will serve as director of school security and to explore labeling classroom windows and exterior room numbers to speed emergency response.
Why it matters: Board members have repeatedly weighed the balance between campus safety and student well-being. The chief framed several proposals as low-cost operational fixes — for example, exterior room-number labeling and clearer policies — while highlighting the department’s role in youth engagement programs such as an elementary art contest and upcoming bicycle-safety education.
Details and context: The chief said the department is recruiting a new police captain who will directly supervise SROs and school-security operations. He also announced the reinstatement of a bicycle patrol with five officers to be certified this spring and deployed at special events and periodically around town. On enforcement vs. education, he emphasized education and parental cooperation, saying ebike-related rules that took effect in October give “a little bit of teeth” but that the department’s first priority will be education rather than chasing cyclists.
Quotes: “Youth engagement is huge to me,” the chief said, noting a Goodwin Elementary project in which students decorated golf-cart license plates for a community contest. “The SRO program is really great here to have full-time SRO. It adds a level of security and comfort for the students and for their families.”
What’s next: The chief asked to stay engaged with principals and staff and said he will share contact information so administrators can reach him directly. The board did not vote on any new policy during the presentation; the chief’s operational proposals will be coordinated with district administrators.
