STAFFORD, Va. — Students in Stafford County went back to school for the first time Wednesday after a long winter break.
Waiting to greet them was a new directive from county Sheriff Charles E. Jett which will bring a increased presence of sheriff’s deputies in schools. Now, every deputy in Stafford County has been instructed to stop into schools located along their beat. Their mission: get to know students, faculty, staff, and build a stronger relationship with the educational community.
“Now, we are basically saying, we’re going to have every deputy incorporate in their patrol day opportunities to stop by and check on the faculty and students, and also become extremely familiar with all of the schools’ layouts and their various scheduling during the day – outside activities and inside activities,” said Jett.
The new imitative comes less than a month after 26 people were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Deputies in Stafford and police departments in jurisdictions across the region stepped up security at schools in the wake of the shootings.
But a law enforcement presence inside the county schools is nothing new, according to a press release about the stepped-up enforcement:
Currently in Stafford County, all of the high schools have a full time School Resource Officer in each school and the eight middle schools share two School Resource Officers. There are two Stafford County deputies assigned exclusively to teach the DARE Program at the elementary level.
Overall, this will mark the first time the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office will have such a large presence inside of schools. Jett reminds residents, just as he did immediately after the Sandy Hook shootings, the increased presence is precautionary and is not in response to any known threats.
Stafford has been called one of the “largest small sheriff’s offices” in Virginia, and Jett admits his deputies don’t have a lot of free time and resources to take on additional responsibilities. It’s unclear what impact this new program will have on his department or staff but it is something he will monitor in the coming weeks for efficiency and effectiveness.
“There is not a lot of uncommitted time our deputies have during the day, but we’ve also incorporated other units to be apart of this…our criminal investigations units with our detectives, even our command staff, traffic safety and, obviously, the juvenile services unit is already in the schools,” added Jett.
According to a sheriff’s department press release, the department plans to do even more to protect through a new neighborhood watch program:
In the near future the Sheriff’s Office will begin work on a new initiative called Protect Our Children Neighborhood Watch Program. The premise of this program is to include neighborhood residents in our attempt to help keep our children safe. The Sherriff’s Office will develop a training module, identify residents near schools and host meetings at the schools in the near future. These trained residents will be acting as eyes and ears, assisting the Sheriff’s Office in identifying suspicious activities or individuals in the neighborhoods around the schools.
