SRO pulled out of WPHS

crazyone

(08/07/10 8:41am)

He was moved because there is literally absolutely no reason to have a stationed police officer at a school that, at its worst, provides one minor scuffle between two girls whose combined weights equal something scraping 150 lbs.

jgriggs

Anybody got info on why mayor sheridan pulled officer grawher out of the high school?  Someone told me it was cause sheridan doesnt like grawher.

crazyone

The Mayor, regardless of who it happens to be at the moment, or any individual member of the Township Commitee, would not have unilateral hiring / firing authority.  Those decision are left up to the department heads.

The committee could in theory withhold funding for a speicific department which could affect the employment levels but any such action would be a matter of public record. 

In the past, there has been some disagreement as to where the funds for the SRO should come from; out of the exisitng money budgeted to the police department, or from addtional money dedicated specifically to the SRO postion.

One position is that if the money comes out of the Police Department budget then those funds would not be available for other purposes.  The preference would there for be to have the Township Committee allocate seperate funds for the SRO postion.

The other position is that, since the SRO is a public safety issue that involves the police department they should indeed use the money they already have.

As is usally the case it boils down to money (OUR MONEY I might add) and who controls it with the results all to often being counter to the public good.

Tom Sutcliffe