Marshfield Police Chief Phil Tavares says the town has received a federal grant that can be used towards additional school resource officers.
Tavares told the Selectmen that the grant is a COPS Grant – which stands for Community Oriented Policing Services from the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I got together with the Town Administrator and the grant writer at the time, along with Lieutenant Shaw, and our Harbormaster Michael DiMeo, who’s great at writing grants as well,” said Tavares. “We were successful in securing a grant for $250,000. It’s a draw-down account over the next three years, to pay for partial funding for two officers.”
Tavares says there’s seven schools in town – five are elementary.
They’ve had a full-time officer at the high school, but a school resource officer position at the middle school has been vacant due to lack of funding. This grant would restore that.
“One would be stationed full-time at the middle school, and one to float one day a week to each of the five elementary schools,” said Tavares. “We would just have to come up with the additional funding to make this happen.”
He plans on meeting with the School Superintendent and School Committee for the next steps.
The Selectmen voted to establish an account for $450,000. A vote for free cash allotment is expected at Town Meeting, where the grant account can be drawn down until it expires.
