Avon School Police reports fewer mental-health calls, details StopIt anonymous-report data

Chief Sam Leahy presented the Avon School Police Department annual update, detailing staff changes, training, grant funding and incident metrics that the district says show both progress and work remaining in school safety efforts.

Leahy framed the department’s mission as balancing law enforcement with mentoring and counseling and noted core values of being "approachable, sincere, professional and dedicated." He introduced recent promotions and hires, including two new officers who will complete field training late in the summer, and said officers averaged over 100 training hours in calendar 2025 — roughly four times Indiana Law Enforcement Academy requirements.

On funding, Leahy said the department received $92,500 in matching dollars from the Secured School Safety Grant that help offset SRO salaries. As to activity, he reported calls for service were down nearly 24% year over year while staffing was down more than 30%, police reports were up about 6%, mental-health calls were down roughly 30% and emergency transports decreased slightly. Student arrests were small in absolute terms — 9 last year and 10 this year among more than 10,000 students — and adult arrests accounted for most of the increase in total arrests.

Leahy also reviewed the district’s use of Stop It Solutions, an anonymous reporting platform: "We had 2,436 activations," he said, and "we have 627 total incidents." He described the district’s process for triage and investigation, noting administrators investigate most incidents and officers respond when violence or safety risk is alleged. Leahy added that about 29.5% of Stop It incidents were closed as unsubstantiated, false or tests and that many reports nonetheless led to conversations with students or to additional interventions.

Board members asked for details about where adult arrests occurred (often off campus or in vehicular incidents), training costs (membership in the SEALTEC training council and TASER contract terms), and how Stop It is introduced to students. Leahy said Stop It is introduced in middle school safety presentations and that elementary parents will receive informational flyers; he stressed the tool has led to emergency responses and, in his words, "absolutely saves lives." The board thanked Leahy and his team for work preparing safety plans and building vulnerability reports.

The board did not take formal action on safety staffing in this meeting beyond approving the annual school safety plans and the list of school safety specialists.