To Whom It May Concern:
As a public school superintendent, school safety and security, for both students and staff members, are paramount. Students and staff members are provided safety training and participate in drills on a regular basis. Even though we have taken many preparatory steps, we also felt the presence of SROs in our buildings would be a great benefit to us; however, we were concerned about budget restraints and a way to fund the cost of SROs. Receiving Indiana’s School Safety Grant provided matching funds up to $50,000 to pay for the cost of SROs. My assistant superintendent, Dr. Timothy Rayle, researched different options with regard to hiring SROs. We also consulted with our school attorney on this issue, and she advised us to contract SRO services with an outside agency; this would allow us to utilize SROs, but they would not be directly employed by our school corporation.
This process led us to LawMan Security & Consulting. My leadership team met directly with Officers Bryan Bishop and Justin Bean from LawMan. We were extremely impressed with their knowledge and passion for school security. Both Officer Bishop and Officer Bean made a presentation to the school board, and the board approved a contract with them.
The Indiana School Safety Grant requires SRO training for all law enforcement officers who work in schools; this became a difficult undertaking because there was no SRO training offered in our immediate area. After much effort, LawMan was able to provide the necessary training in our county for local, county, and state law enforcement officers in our area. We now have several of these officers trained and working in our buildings.
I have found Officers Bishop and Bean to be very cooperative and willing to answer any of our questions. They respond to emails and phone calls in a timely manner and understand how important school safety is to the school administration. I have been very pleased with our working relationship, their willingness to go above and beyond to provide the necessary SRO training at a local venue, and their willingness to work with us on a personal basis; therefore, I would highly recommend that LawMan be considered as one of your school safety options.
Sincerely,
Jeffery D. Fritz
CCS Superintendent