Delaware County Sheriff's Office Working To Provide More Support To Residents, Schools

The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office has begun the process of hiring school resource officers and more deputies to patrol the county. Currently, several of the schools in the district are operating without any law enforcement protection due to lack of funding. Voters passed a 0.3% sales tax bond in April that will fund the staffing increases for the office. The tax will generate an additional $1.5 million per year.

There are nine schools in Delaware County and any school wanting a resource officer on site permanently each day can now request one. Sheriff James Beck says violence is increasing nationwide in public places especially in schools and he’s hoping this effort makes everyone feel safer. During Tourism season, the department experiences an increase in call volume so having enough staff is even more important.

Residents of the county are also expected to benefit thanks to an increase in the number of deputies on patrol. Sheriff Beck says this should improve response times with deputies spread out more.

“We have some geographical challenges here where it’s hard for us to get to certain parts of the county. It takes longer to get there if we don’t have a deputy because we have to go through certain towns, certain bridges. We have certain sections of the county we actually have to leave and go out of county and come back into our county to move because it’s landlocked by the lake,” Beck said.

Sheriff Beck is also hoping the new school resource officers are able to build trust with kids.

“How many children do we have that are abused we don’t know about? If these officers are in these schools and they develop relationships with these children then they can let us know if things are happening at the house because they’ll have more trust with us,” said Beck.

Superintendents will play a role in selecting the school resource officers in partnership with the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Beck says it’s important school leaders are able to make sure officers selected are a good fit.

So far six schools out of nine have requested school resource officers in Delaware County.

Sheriff Beck is hopeful to have all of them in place during the next three to six months.