Pinellas Park Students: Meet Your New Protectors

PINELLAS PARK, FL -- Just in time for the start of the school year on Monday, Aug. 13, Pinellas Park Police Department school resource officers are in place in all Pinellas Park schools.

There will now be full-time, assigned school resource officers on every public school campus in the city in accordance with the state mandate requiring an officer or armed school safety officer be placed in each of the state's schools.

The department has expanded its existing school resource officer section and has assigned officers to five additional schools in addition to providing a second officer at Pinellas Park High School. The eight-officer unit is being supervised by a sergeant who is responsible for the day-to-day oversight and supervision of all the SROs.

During this summer, every officer in the agency, including the newly selected SROs, attended a mandatory active assailant training course to safeguard students and staff. Each of these new SROs began working at their assigned schools this week with the return of the school staff members and are training staff on the approved countywide active assailant training.

In addition, throughout the year, each SRO is responsible for making sure that every student takes the approved active assailant curriculum at school.

The SROs will not only be on hand to provide a visible deterrent but will do continuous threat assessments of the school property,

In addition to the two SROs assigned to Pinellas Park High School, the police department has hired one each for Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School, Skyview Elementary School, Cross Bayou Elementary School, Rawlings Elementary School, Pinellas Central Elementary School and Pinellas Park Elementary School.

Image via Pinellas Park Police

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