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08/01/2024 01:10 PMNORTH HAVEN
On July 30, the North Haven Board of Police Commissioners appointed John Scarpa, a retired sergeant, as a new school resource officer (SRO) at North Haven Public Schools, adding another person to the town’s Public School Security Supernumerary Program.
First Selectman Mike Freda described Scarpa as an “outstanding police officer…who has been part of this community for years.”
As of Scarpa’s appointment, the commission will move forward with an “authorization for promotional testing” to fulfill Scarpa’s former role within the department, said Chair Larry Lazaroff.
The appointment of Scarpa comes a little over a year after North Haven’s Public School Security Supernumerary Program Ordinance was renewed at a June 26 special meeting in 2023. The ordinance, passed in 2018, mandates the daily presence of a SRO at all North Haven public schools through the 2028 fiscal year.
Echoing statements from last year’s meeting, Freda told The Courier that the program is “very important” and has garnered universal approval from many demographics in town, including relatives of district students.
“It was one of my major goals...to have this program instituted,” said Freda. “I’ve talked to...thousands of people across the town of North Haven—parents, faculty members, teachers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and even some of the children when I visit the schools. Everybody loves our school resource officers.”
Freda said that the renewal of the program in the form of an ordinance has offered it “great stability and sustainability,” considering potential future occupants of the role who are already with the North Haven Police Department (NHPD) and may want to acquire the position at some point.
“Even when there are school resource officers as part of the supernumerary program that decide that they want to move on, I know, in working with our police department as closely as I do, that there's many members who down the road want to become school resource officers,” said Freda. “It’s my goal to continue to see that this program sustains itself for years and years to come.”
Freda added that retiring officers who have served in North Haven and “are well recognized in the community” may find that the transition from the NHPD to the school district is a “natural transition” since they are still serving the community and, in their case, the school system.
“As long as I’m in this government, I will always support the police department and support this school resource officer supernumerary program,” said Freda. “It's critically important for the safety of our children and our faculty members and our teachers.”
While the appointment of Scarpa as a new SRO satisfies a current need in terms of North Haven policing, the town is already looking to further expand its local police presence in the future.
Freda informed The Courier that the recently passed fiscal year budget for 2024 accounts for two new officers to be added to force, both of whom will begin work starting in January 2025.
“The police chief, myself and the commission—we’re trying to increase the patrols, further amplify police presence around the town,” said Freda.
The first selectman cited Universal Drive as a location in town along which greater patrol has already been positioned. Greater police presence with higher levels of staffing is a tactic also cited by NHPD Chief Kevin Glenn as effective in lowering larceny crimes and forming relationships with residents, as he said in the Aug. 1 issue of The Courier.
“I definitely think there's a correlation between proactivity with traffic stops and interacting with people in the public and a decrease in crime,” said Glenn.