By David Hench
Portland Press Herald
PORTLAND, Maine — State troopers across Maine plan to start visiting schools, getting familiar with their safety plans and offering a visible law enforcement presence for schools in towns that lack full-time police departments.
Col. Patrick Fleming, chief of the Maine State Police, announced the statewide initiative Monday.
''Our goal is for local troopers and the schools they serve to become more familiar with each other and to improve communication between the two, as those troopers are likely to be among the first responders to any incidents,’' Fleming said in a prepared statement.
Many schools that have had school resource officers are cutting funding for the positions. The state police initiative is based on a pilot program started a year ago by Troop D, covering the midcoast.
The program grew out of the frightening incident in Stockton Springs in October 2008, when an armed man took students hostage.
''In Stockton Springs, they had a plan, and when it was implemented it made a huge difference,’' said Lt. Gerard Madden. ''Kids went where they were supposed to.’'
A trooper was the first officer at the school, and was joined by several other agencies. The man eventually gave up and nobody was injured.
Madden said that after the incident, many schools contacted him to discuss their safety plans.
Madden supervises the 25 troopers and three sergeants who patrol Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties and the southern half of Kennebec County. Of the 128 schools in the area, 65 are in towns that lack full-time police departments.
Besides meeting with school staffs to discuss safety plans and interacting with students, troopers have sought to be more visible by parking at the schools to do paperwork and take advantage of the wireless Internet in schools to send and receive reports.
Lt. Walter Grzyb supervises Troop B, which covers Cumberland, Oxford and Androscoggin counties. Those troopers are responsible for developing relationships with 40 schools, including some that had, and lost, school resource officers.
Grzyb said troopers will try to get digital copies of schools’ safety plans and load them into a computer database that’s accessible to others in the troop. That way, if a trooper who is unfamiliar with a particular school is called to respond to an incident, the trooper can immediately call up details about the plan.
''It’s a matter of priorities,’' Grzyb said. ''As an agency, we’ve looked at school safety and said we have to do a better job making this a priority for us. Will it have an impact on other things? Potentially.’'
However, the program is not seen as a major time commitment, he said.
''As part of daily activity, when going by the school, if you have a minute, stop in and say hello instead of driving by it. Let the kids see the car, see the uniform. It may only be for five minutes,’' Grzyb said.
''The hope is, just a little at a time, there will be a noticeable increase in the presence in and around the schools,’' he said.
Fleming and Education Commissioner Susan Gendron have sent letters to the state’s superintendents inviting them to contact the barracks in their areas to arrange to meet with troopers.
Copyright 2010 Portland Press-Herald