Town holds off on assigning school officer
Supervisor James Quigley says a conversation with the district is needed due to controversies over law-enforcement policies.
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. »
Town officials are waiting to hear from the Kingston school district before deciding whether to have a member of the town police department serve as a resource officer at M. Clifford Middle School for 2020-21.
The school is in Ulster put is part of the Kingston district.
Town Supervisor James Quigley said that because of nationwide controversy over law-enforcement policies, the town wants to “have a conversation” with school district officials about the school resource officer, or SRO, particularly in regards to liability.
“It’s a liability limitation discussion,” Quigley said of the desired talks. “It’s open season on cops, and what my concerns are is we’re putting a police officer into an environment where young people don’t think about their actions. They may not necessarily think about doing something stupid that results in certain other ... consequential actions, and we just need to have a discussion about that.”
The supervisor said the SRO issue “was on our agenda [for the June 18 Town Board meeting], and I can’t get anybody from the school district to call me back.”
The Town of Ulster Police Department has provided SROs to the Miller school since at least 2008, and before that, the department conducted drug abuse awareness and prevention programs at the school.
Town officials had hoped to approve a new SRO contract with the school district before the June 30 expiration of the current agreement.
The current agreement calls for the SRO to carry out such tasks as conflict mediation, safety instruction, prevention of dangerous situations, and working with community agencies that offer mental health assistance and drug treatment.
The contract does no allow the SRO to take disciplinary action for violations of school district policies, but it does allow the officer to respond to emergency situations and take law-enforcement action if needed.