If your child is currently enrolled in a Duneland School, you’ve probably already made the acquaintance at some point of one (or more) of the five officers assigned by the Chesterton Police Department to full-time duty as School Resource Officers (SROs).
Indeed, as your child grows and graduates, from elementary, intermediate, and middle school in succession, you’ll almost certainly be making the acquaintance of at least two or three others.
You’ll see them in the hallways and the gyms and auditoriums. By the car line. At athletic events. At concerts or plays. And there’s a good chance, when do you see them, they’ll be smiling and laughing, joshing with the kids and engaging with them, because they’re not only excellent at their job, they really like it too.
So meet the CPD’s five SROs:
*Lt. Joe Christian: Brummitt, Liberty, and Jackson elementary schools.
*Sgt. Chris Swickard: Chesterton High School.
*Cpl. Jacob Ray: Westchester Intermediate/Middle School.
*Officer Adam Alicea: Bailly, Brummitt, and Yost elementary schools.
*Officer Shauna Jesse: Chesterton High School.
Now, however, the ranks of the CPD’s SRO cadre will soon grow by one, after Porter County Sheriff Jeff Balon was forced by staffing requirements to reassign the Sheriff’s Department’s own SRO from Liberty Intermediate/School.
As CPD Chief Tim Richardson told the Town Council at its meeting Monday night, Oct. 14, “The Sheriff’s Department notified the Duneland School Corporation late last week that it could no longer fill that sixth position due to manpower issues. Sheriff Balon needs more people on the road and until he gets that built up to where it needs to be they will not be able to supply that SRO. Someday he hopes to be able to add that back in, which is awesome. Because Sheriff Balon definitely supports the program.”
The Duneland School Corporation (DSC), accordingly, asked Richardson to assign a sixth CPD officer to SRO duty, under the terms of a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) which stipulates how much DSC will reimburse the Town of Chesterton for the services of all six for the 2024-25 school year.
Enough, Richardson summarized, to pay each officer’s full salary plus some benefits: $7,100 more for each of the existing SROs plus $95,000 for the sixth, for a total of $570,000, due in the summer of 2025.
“The Duneland School Corporation cares deeply about school safety,” Richardson said. “And we do run one of the best SRO programs in Northern Indiana. For a town of our size and a police department of our size, we’re dedicating about 20 percent of our staff to SRO. That tells you how mindful we are of school safety.”
“The SROs do a phenomenal job,” Richardson noted. “They’re not just cops in the schools. They’re mentors. They’re instructors. Two of our SROs help teach the criminal justice class at the high school. Our SRO program is stellar and we’ve taken it further than a lot of municipalities have.”
“When I came to you in August 2021, you had three SROs,” Richardson added. “At that time the Duneland School Corporation partially refunded their salaries. We worked very hard with the Duneland School Corporation. They’re very committed to the same vision we have. We got that reimbursement up.”
President Jim Ton, R-1st, was careful to emphasize that DSC—not the Town of Chesterton—is paying the freight on all of the SROs assigned to the Duneland Schools. “We are facilitating this additional officer,” he said. “We are not financing it. That’s coming from the Duneland Schools. And we’re a little ahead of some the costs we’ve been bearing.”
“To put a number on it,” Richardson replied, “from when I arrived we’re getting $65,000 more per officer. That how’s committed the Duneland School Corporation is to seeing this program through.”
“This council as well feels that the safety and security of our students in the school buildings are paramount,” Ton declared.
“Since you came aboard and started this initiative, I’ve seen great improvement in the culture of the students in the schools,” Member Jennifer Fisher, R-5th., told Richardson. “I think having the SROs present has made a very positive impact. It’s been tremendously successful. It’s taking the kids in the right direction to make good choices. So thank you for your hard word and your dedication.”
The Town Council then voted unanimously to approve the new MOU.
The process for assigning a sixth SRO in a Duneland School will actually be twofold: First, a currently serving CPD officer will need to be recruited and trained; and second but concurrently, a new officer must be hired to backfill the sixth SRO’s position in the department.
Richardson made it clear after the meeting that the CPD expects to cover this sixth SRO slot only temporarily, as a “way of giving back to area law enforcement.”
“For the CPD to be efficient and successful, we lean on the other departments in Porter County when major incidents occur in our town,” Richardson said. “From time to time we very much appreciate the timely and professional assistance of the Sheriff’s Department and the Porter, Valparaiso, and Portage police departments. The CPD has also relied on the Porter County and Portage PD Swat teams and both the Sheriff’s and the Valparaiso PD’s CSI expertise. The cooperation, collaboration, and cohesion of these departments is superb. As such, I’m very happy to be able to do our fair share in supporting school safety, which is of great importance to Sheriff Balon and to all the police chiefs in Porter County.”