After Minneapolis Shooting, Middlesex Boro Putting Armed Police In All Schools

MIDDLESEX, NJ — Middlesex borough Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk, schools superintendent Roberta Freeman and Police Chief Matthew Geist announced Thursday a shared-services agreement is being finalized between the town and the school district that will put armed police officers in all Middlesex borough schools.

The town is doing this after the shooting this week in Minneapolis, where two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed, and 14 other children shot.

The Middlesex Borough Police Department will be hiring, training and integrating Class III Special officers, which will then be assigned directly to the borough schools. The plan is the armed officers will be installed in Middlesex schools within the next several months, said the police department.

Class III Special Law Enforcement Officers are retired law enforcement officers. They receive specialized training in school security, threat analysis and student safety.

“These highly trained and experienced officers will be an armed presence in the schools to deter or directly intervene in the tragic school violence we too often witness across our nation," said Chief Geist.