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Bethel Police considering new SRO for school security

Following the elementary school shooting in Texas, school districts in the Greater Danbury area are once again looking to increase security. After that shooting, an additional Bethel Police officer was assigned to patrol the education park.  The district has two permanent School Resource Officers on staff. Police Chief Stephen Pugner says he got positive feedback on the perimeter security-type patrols through the end of the academic year. 

Pugner told the Board of Education one suggestion he got for going forward was to hire an armed security person, but he doesn't like that idea because if someone walks onto the school complex, they’d have no authority to put them in handcuffs, arrest them or cite them for a violation.  Another suggestion is to pay a Bethel police officer overtime to serve as a third SRO. 

He is backing a different option: hiring an additional police officer.  Overtime would cost about $86,000 but a full time officer would, at most, be about $100,000.  He notes that the officer would then be available to do other police work around town when school isn’t in session.  Pugner was asked to submit a formal proposal so the town’s comptroller can review the budget.


While physical security and “hardening” the school buildings remains a focus, Superintendent of Schools Christine Carver says they also want to ensure that students feel not only physically safe, but emotionally safe and accepted as part of the community. District staff also do active shooter training sessions with the local police department. Carver noted that situational awareness is a big focus of the district’s training and drilling exercises.

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