03/10/2025
The Dunmore Police Benevolent Association is aware that the Dunmore School Board and Dunmore Borough Council attempted to renegotiate an agreement regarding our Dunmore Police Officers that serve as School Resource Officers (SRO’s) in our district schools. We believe that it is important for the public to know that our Police Association was NOT part of these negotiations, as the agreement is between the Borough and the School District.
Unfortunately, the Borough and School District failed to reach an agreement and, as a result, the Dunmore Police will no longer be serving as SROs beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. Instead, the School District has opted to hire armed security guards. Though we as an association were not part of these negotiations, we take a position of disappointment in the outcome of the failed negotiations between the Borough and School District which seemed to be strictly financial in nature, and without regard to the negative affect this may have on the safety and security of our children. Many members of our association are parents of Dunmore students, and have a personal stake in the well-being, safety, and security of our most prized assets: our children.
Dunmore Borough Police Officers have served as the SROs in our schools for many years, and have developed a rapport and relationship between our police department and our children, who are not only students but our youngest Borough citizens. Fostering good police/public trust begins with positive interactions between our children and our SROs. Taking the Dunmore Police out of our school severs those ties, and lessens our effectiveness on the streets.
Beyond the value of our relationship with our youngest, most vulnerable citizens, is their overall safety. Over the past several years, the Dunmore Police have notably thwarted a planned mass-casualty event in 2021 that was highly publicized, uncovered the victimization of a special needs student, and dealt with countless other incidents. Our Dunmore Police SROs have received specialized training to serve as resource officers, as well as training in active shooter response and other specialized areas of law enforcement. Our Borough police officers are some of the most highly prepared, best trained law enforcement officers available - most qualified to protect our children. Any substitute would surely be inferior.
As the Dunmore Police Benevolent Association, it is our position that the failed negotiation attempts between Borough Council and the School Board compromises the well-being, safety, and security of our students both at school and out of school, and compromises our ability to deal with crime information at that level. We urge the residents of Dunmore to reach out to their elected officials if they share the same sentiments as we do about turning over the safety of our children to private security guards.
- Members of the Dunmore Police Benevolent Association
