STAFFORD COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
NEWS RELEASE

The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to report that this past June the Sheriff’s Office received word that the Virginia Criminal Justice Services Board approved a grant for the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office to partially fund 6 additional school resource officers to be placed in the middle schools. The Board of Supervisors has agreed to fund the rest of the cost needed to fill these positions.

The assignment of these deputies to the schools will take place by January of 2014. This timetable will allow the Sheriff’s Office to hire, train and certify 6 new deputies who will replace 6 experienced deputies. The experienced deputies will be the ones who will be placed in the schools. The deputies going to the middle schools will also receive additional training in the skills needed to be a school resource officer, receive training that will allow them to teach the DARE Program and they will also receive additional training in school safety techniques and practices.

The 6 new positions will mean that by January of 2014, there will be a school resource officer for each high school, a school resource officer for every middle school and two deputies who will be teaching the DARE program at the elementary schools. In addition, the Sheriff’s Office will continue to have a daily presence of a patrol deputy in each school that does not have a full time resource officer already assigned to it. These deputies will be checking in with school administrators, walking the halls and doing safety checks at the school.

“I am pleased that we will be able to enhance the security and quality learning environment of all of our middle schools’” states Sheriff Charles Jett. “I appreciate the support and funding from our Board of Supervisors as well as from Governor McDonnell and the General Assembly. It speaks volumes about their commitment to ensuring that the children attending schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia go to schools that are safe and educationally productive.”