MARLBORO – Municipal officials have agreed to extend shared services agreements with the Freehold Regional High School District and the Marlboro K-8 School District and will continue to provide School Resource Officers (SRO) and Class III special law enforcement officers in schools in Marlboro.
The township will provide an SRO and two Class III officers at Marlboro High School in its agreement with the FRHSD.
In its agreement with the K-8 school district, the township will provide one Class III officer at each of the district’s eight schools, one SRO who will rotate among the district’s elementary schools and the David C. Abbott Early Learning Center, and one SRO who will split time between the district’s two middle schools.
According to the agreement, the Marlboro Police Department will have the power to hire, discharge, assign and discipline the officers. The school board in each district reserves the right to request an alternate officer should an assigned officer’s performance be contrary to police policies.
The officers who are assigned to the schools will be Class III officers or sworn police officers employed by the township.
Class III officers are recently retired law enforcement personnel who will be under the command of the police department and may carry a firearm while on duty.
Each SRO will work a maximum of 40 hours per week. Specific duty hours for an SRO will be set by mutual agreement between the school district – at the direction of the principal of the school to which the officer is assigned – and the police chief.
In other business during a recent meeting, the Township Council authorized the use of $220,435 for the replacement of police vehicle equipment to be used in the following way:
• $27,037 for mobile radio equipment, antennae and accessories;
• $21,542 for a license plate reader;
• $37,830 for police computers;
• $13,728 for light bars and siren controllers;
• $11,959 for warning lights and emergency equipment for Dodge Durango vehicles;
• $38,986 for warning lights and emergency equipment for Dodge Charger vehicles;
• $55,246 for in-car mobile video recorder;
• $3,622 for emergency equipment for Dodge Charger and Dodge Durango vehicles;
• $9,779 for Cradlepoint mobile routers;
• $700 for external speakers for police radios.
Council members authorized the purchase of two Dodge Durango police vehicles for $69,172; six Dodge Charger police vehicles for $168,242; and a Ford Transit Van with an animal transport conversion kit and related equipment for $51,597.
Finally, council members appropriated a $120,370 grant from the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders for accessibility curb improvements in the Greenbriar adult community.
