Open Letter to Enfield Taxpayers, Parents and School Employees

I am writing this letter in order to educate the aforementioned groups about the realities of the recent decision to place armed security guards, consisting of retired police officers, in the public school system. This plan was recently approved by both the Enfield Board of Education and the Enfield Town Council. This was the plan that was recommended by the School Safety Committee that consisted of councilpersons, Police Department administrators and members of the Board of Education. Let me start out by saying that I am not against increased security in the schools or the costs associated with it. In fact, I am an Enfield resident with two children in different schools in the Enfield Public School System and would like them to be safe as they continue their education. However, this decision to place retired officers in the schools at a significant cost to the taxpayers is misguided, does little to truly increase security and is fraught in its conception and implementation with questionable decisions. One of the first issues I would like to address is the use of retired police officers from the Town of Enfield. This is probably the hardest part of this letter for me to write due to my support of the Enfield Police Department and my belief that having retired officers in the community is a benefit to any town. While I am in favor of supporting these individuals for their service to the Town, I do not believe that they are the proper candidates for meeting a mentally or chemically altered, rifle wielding young person head on as the first line of defense for our precious children. The Town has done a great service to its taxpayers by not having the “Cadillac” retirement plans for its retired officers (it’s comparatively dismal) that some towns and the state provide their retirees. This, however, means officers routinely dedicate themselves to twenty five or more years of employment in a career that takes a significant physical and emotional toll in order to obtain a level of income that can sustain them. The officers retiring from Enfield generally are not the middle aged, ultra-motivated and super fit persons that are eager to tackle a new critical task such as this, as this plan may have been presented. The reality is that officers in the Town of Enfield can be left with medical and physical issues that are often contributing factors in their retirement. It pains me to say it, but these are not the people I want tasked with running towards a lethal threat in one of the schools that my children attend. Another area of concern is that the plan has been scheduled for a start during the next school year. I don’t believe that a school attack could be scheduled for after the implementation of this security officer program and that, if an active shooter is enough of a risk to justify spending in excess of one million taxpayer dollars over two years, then it would be enough of a risk to have armed officers in the schools immediately. It’s either a threat or its not, insanity can not be scheduled! The only option for the Town to accomplish this immediacy would be to place certified Police Officers (already in the Town’s employ, already trained in firearms, already trained in active shooter incidents, already trained in defensive tactics, already trained in the legality and liability of officer involved shootings, already fully equipped, already willing to place other’s lives before their own lives, current in their emergency medical training and with full arrest powers) into the schools. This would seem to save the Enfield taxpayer money as there would be no startup costs, only the cost of paying the Police Officers for their time and would also provide a greater level of service. Although it would seem to be very expensive to pay officers overtime or private job rates to secure our schools, a fact that has been kept out of discussions is that, because the safety of the Town schoolchildren is a top concern of all officers, residents or not, Enfield Police Local #798 and its union members proposed providing these services to the Town at straight pay rates which are only slightly more than what the security officers will be paid. The amount of money that has been budgeted so far for this security guard program would cover many hours of police officers in schools at either overtime or straight pay rates. Of course, with a Police Department administration already in place, this plan would not justify a $32,000 raise for the Public Safety Director for his sacrifice of an additional five hours of time per week. This brings up the issues with the conception, proposal and implementation process that have recently surfaced. In addition to the offer by the Police Union to provide security services at a reduced cost being kept out of the public eye, several other questionable decisions or practices have come to light. Although these issues do not rise to the stench of corruption, they certainly smell strongly of cronyism. Certainly the issue of the Public Safety Director’s impressive raise has been a subject of justified outrage or disbelief based solely on its overall or percentile increase, this is in addition to the hiring of one school safety officer supervisor already being paid and the possible hire of another. These two “supervisors” will be paid more than the school safety officers and will be tasked with running the program day to day. What, again, is the justification for the Director’s $32,000 raise to run the program? This $32,000 is proposed to pay for 260 hours of the Director’s time if he works the five additional hours every week for the entire 52 weeks of a calendar year. As a comparison, this same amount of money would pay for 640 hours per year of an officer at private job rates per year, over 1000 hours if the Union’s offer had been accepted. Prior to this even becoming an issue, the planning and recommendation of the entire program seemed questionable. The School Safety Committee was comprised of Police Department administration, Town Council members and members of the Board of Education. Lacking was the presence of any rank and file officers or police union members that have been the first responders to all school incidents since the creation of the police department. Most of the police officers were not even aware of the plan proposed until reading about it in the local papers. One of the council members is married to one of the police administrators and both were on the safety committee. It is my understanding that this council member did not abstain from voting based on her relationship but, instead, voted for this security officer program. The Town Council, the Director of Public Safety and the Town Manager who proposed the Director’s raise all work very closely together. Perhaps this is the reason for the Director’s part-time salary of over $82,000 in the first place as well as his $32,000 raise. Again, I am not accusing anyone of corruption but the program reeks of cronyism. There are also rumors that the program will only be in place for two years, long enough for anxiety about school safety to cool and allow the program to expire without protest from parents. I doubt that the expiration of this program will result in a $32,000 pay cut for the Director. I believe that safety and security of the schools and the staff and children within needs to be addressed. However, I strongly believe that the solution should not be a temporary, feel good program that is loaded with favoritism and/or cronyism and needless expenditures that provide minimal improvement in security such as the one that has been approved by the Council and the Board after being endorsed by those who stand to gain from it. The budget has not yet been approved and is still subject to public comment. I urge all of the residents of Enfield that will be affected by this to speak their minds to their representatives on the Council and demand a real solution to the issue of school safety. Those affected by this include all taxpayers in the Town of Enfield, all parents of Enfield public school children and the staff of these schools whose safety is at stake. Your children, your safety and your money depend on a plan that ensures the safety of everyone in the schools and doesn’t just line the pockets of certain individuals. Thank you for taking the time to read this, Officer Anony Mous N E Town, CT