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SRO proposal defeated in Public Safety Committee vote
Aug 15, 2018 7:00 am
David Zuckerman is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Greene County Legislature Public Safety Committee rejected a resolution at a special meeting August 13, that called on the county to foot a portion of the bill for the placement of school resource officers in three of the county's school districts. The resolution specified that four officers be assigned to the Cairo-Durham, Windham-Ashland-Jewett and Greenville Central school districts for a three-year term beginning September 1, continuing through June 30, 2021. The officers would be placed in the schools for security purposes and "to act as role models for students," according to the resolution. Under the proposal, each district would contribute $55,000 for each officer, while the county would contribute $31,000 to cover the cost of benefits for each of them. Public Safety Chairman William Lawrence, a Republican representing Cairo, said the Catskill and Coxsackie-Athens districts currently employ school resource officers. Hunter-Tannersville declined to participate in the program. School resource officers are certified in use of firearms, they have arrest powers and they report to a supervisor at the Sheriff’s Office, Lawrence said. Greene County Sheriff Greg Seeley was disappointed with the outcome of the vote, but he remains committed to having the school resource officers ready to serve once the school year begins, Zuckerman writes. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.