Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Elementary School Security Personnel Basic Information What are the types of armed personnel that may be present in a Connecticut School? All armed school security in Connecticut schools must be either active police officers or a retired officer or law enforcement agent. SRO “means a sworn police officer of a local law enforcement agency who has been assigned to a school pursuant to an agreement between the local or regional board of education and the chief of police of a local law enforcement agency.” Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-233m A retired officer or law enforcement agent from one of the following categories: Connecticut state police officer, Connecticut local police officer, out-of-state police officer, or federal law enforcement agency officer or agent. “Retired officers must also (1) meet or exceed Connecticut’s Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council certification standards to serve as armed security at a school and (2) be a “qualified retired law enforcement officer” as defined in the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act and who retired or separated in good standing from such department.” If we hired ASOs in Waterford, it would be mandated they continue their training with the Waterford Police Department in an on-going manner. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-244a Why this is being considered? Why is this being considered? What is the additional layer of security they would provide that we don’t have now? Would this actually reduce response time in the case of an emergency? The overarching considerations are deterrence and having an armed first responder on the scene should a “bad actor” show up to do harm to one of our elementary schools. It is difficult, at best, to quantify how many people have been deterred from doing harm to a school and how many lives have been saved because they were staffed with armed security personnel. In the case of any security breach, time is of the essence. In the case of armed security being onsite, it would reduce the response time for a first responder to engage with a perpetrator until the rest of the law enforcement response show up. Having armed security at the elementary schools would also bring a greater security presence throughout the day to both the physical school building as well as the grounds. The district has developed strong security and safety plans and procedures and elementary security, like our secondary schools, brings a level of accountability and fidelity of those plans and procedures. Is this being considered because of the behavior of our elementary students? Are there student issues in the elementary schools necessitating this? No. This is not being considered because of the behavior of our elementary students. This is being considered under the umbrella of security and safety. You will read below in more detail that SROs are not involved in student behavior and school discipline issues. That is the responsibility of school administration and school staff. If approved, ASOs would not be involved in behavior and discipline issues either.
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