By: David Weinstein
A three-year federal grant, totaling $500,000, to be used to pay the salary and benefits for four school resource officers in South Brunswick schools was accepted by the Township Council Tuesday night.
Police Lt. Ron Schmalz applied for the grant in April 1999. The department was awarded the grant last month.
There are three school resource officers in district schools. This year, the program was funded by a federal grant, received by the department in 1999. An SRO is assigned to a school and is expected to not only police the school, but also to provide knowledge on law enforcement in classrooms, guidance to students and faculty and work as part of the school community.
The grant will expand the program to four officers.
Money remaining from the 1999 grant after this year will not be used for the salary and benefits of the existing SROs, but will be used to supplement the department’s Community Policing program, Chief Michael Paquette said Wednesday.
Councilman Ted Van Hessen said he had no concerns with accepting the grant.
“Do it. Congratulations, wonderful, grand,” said Mr. Van Hessen. “This is an opportunity to further diversify our department.”
While the latest grant allows for the hiring of four officers, Chief Paquette said this does not mean there will be seven SRO’s in the district’s schools next year.
One SRO will be added, and three other officers will be hired and added to the force, he said. All four new officers, though, will have their salary and benefits federally funded for three years.
The newest SRO will likely be assigned to the district’s elementary schools. Currently, there is one SRO at the high school, one at Crossroads Middle School and the Upper Elementary School and one that makes the rounds at the district’s seven elementary schools.
Capt. Mike Marosy said hiring new officers will allow the department to put more officers on the streets, without taking away from the SRO program.
Since April, the department has been awaiting approval from the township to implement the grant and to begin the hiring process. Council approval was necessary because the township will assume salary and benefit requirements when the grant expires in 2003.
In addition, some Township Council members said they were concerned about the burden three new officers may present to the township budget once the grant expired.
A further stipulation of accepting the grant is that the officers remain employed at the end of three years.
The base salary for an officer hired and paid with funds from this grant will be $27,869 in the first year. Benefits including retirement compensation and health insurance, which total almost $15,000, bring the first-year total to $42,778.
The second-year number will be $56,561, with a base salary of $39,787. The cost per officer will be $61,046, with a base salary of $43,665 in the third year.
Hiring minority and women police officers is not a stipulation of the grant. But it is something some council members are concerned about.
While no new officers have been hired, Capt. Marosy said Tuesday night, at the top of the department’s candidate list are several minority candidates.
He also said that the department’s recruitment of minority officers, which has been a strategic goal since the early 1990s, is coming to fruition.
“If two minority officers are hired, that will bring our percentage to 11 percent, and we will continue to work hard to further diversify the department,” he said.
Mayor Debra Johnson acknowledged that more minorities are being hired and sought after by the department, but said she would like to see an even bigger percentage, one that clearly represents the makeup of the township’s population, of minorities and women in the department.
“I don’t think we can go overboard on any program that recruits minorities and women. We are not now at our highest complement,” the mayor said.
Councilwoman Carol Barrett, in saying she approves of the grant, also voiced concerns that more minority and female officers need to be hired.
“We need to work on these numbers,” she said.
“My concern, and I hope we can work on this, is that we can add some diversity to the department. This is an area I believe we really need to work on,” Ms. Barrett said.
