JD Malone also had an article in regard to Mayor Keller's report from the Council meeting (read it here) specifically addressing the force being down four individuals and the hiring of a new Police Chief.
The full time complement is six full-time and six part-time officers.
The drug and vandalism situation was discussed at length on Thursday's workshop (read the post on the discussion here) and led to the Mayor's comments.
At Monday's meeting, during Public Comment and in the comments on the post noted above, I commended the borough for their concern for spending, but noted given the investment in the park and our responsibility to protect our citizens and children, they ought to consider hiring a new officer who would be responsible for the Park, School area, and Community Events. This officer, as I see it, would be in addition to regular coverage of these areas. We have a bike for a bike patrol officer that could be used at the Park and Community Events, and this officer could develop relationships with the School resource officer from Upper and work with the School and Upper Nazareth on specific issues. Given everything we spend money on, this would be a worthwhile expense in my opinion.
Today, in the local section of the Morning Call there was an article about Northampton HS and the coming anniversary of last year's incident where a student brought a .22 rifle into school (read the article here).
The article noted that Northampton has been making security changes almost daily and has hired a former Allentown Police Officer to serve as its own head of security (one man force).
At Nazareth, the Board discussed removing the MS resource officer (I believe it was added back in) to next year as a budget cut measure. I don't know if the HS even has a resource officer.
It seems while we continue to add administrators we haven't done much to protect/secure our children in light of recent events and tragic ones further away.
I don't know if you'd call it a summit, but it seems that Upper Nazareth, Nazareth Borough, and the NASD should develop a team to address some of the more significant problems. The school, while not ignoring the balance of this year, should be looking to improve security for next year, while the Borough and Upper develop plans for the summer when students will be out of school and seeking things to do.
What do you think?
2 comments:
Shouldn't Bushkill, Lower Nazareth and Tatamy be included in the "summet"? I think they have a vested interest in our student's safety too.
Good point, was thinking about it from the perspective that while the
MS is fully within Upper and the resource officer is from Upper, the HS is part in the borough, part township and while Upper has jurisdiction in the building, Borough is responsible for Center/Victory Lane, and parts of Liberty.
Post a Comment