SNOW HILL – Local law enforcement officials are hoping updates to operating procedures will have a positive impact at local schools.
Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli said changes in standard operating procedures for his deputies will make local schools even safer. Following a recent agreement between the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office and Worcester County Public Schools, school resource deputies now have updated guidelines on how to respond in certain situations.
“Our goal is this revamped standard operating procedure will help to minimize and deter criminal behavior in our schools,” Crisafulli said.
The Worcester County Board of Education this month approved an updated memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office. While an agreement has been in place since the school resource deputy program was created, school system officials said the document was updated during the past few months.
“We collaboratively noted we needed to firm up some things and make our memorandum of understanding even stronger so over the past few months and specifically the last few weeks we worked together on a memorandum of understanding we can both feel comfortable with,” said Annette Wallace, chief safety and academic officer for grades 9-12, at the most recent meeting of the school board.
According to Crisafulli, the updated MOU comes not long after statewide changes to the juvenile justice system. When the state implemented more specific guidelines for law enforcement interactions with minors, with different protocols identified for different age groups, Crisafulli said it was a good time for his office to make adjustments to standard operating procedures.
“One of the main missions of my office is ensuring our children are safe,” the sheriff said. “As times changed, we started taking a better look at our operating procedures.”
He said his department revised its standard operating procedures to provide the deputies who serve in schools with more guidance regarding when to do custodial arrests versus referrals to the juvenile justice system.
In the past, when a student did something illegal officers would file a request for charges through the department of juvenile justice. Now, deputies will do that as well as a custodial arrest when it is warranted.
“This is to ensure our schools are running as safely as possible,” Crisafulli said. “Our philosophy is if minors know they’re going to leave school in handcuffs if they engage in violent or illegal behavior hopefully it’ll deter those types of behaviors.”
Deputies, he said, would make a determination on how to proceed after reviewing facts, circumstances and evidence in each situation.
“If there is a custodial arrest that happens once or twice, our youth will see that and it’ll deter that type of behavior,” Crisafulli said, adding that he hoped parents would also talk to their children about the consequences they could face if they engaged in violent or illegal behavior at school. “If they do act egregiously and with felonious behavior there will be criminal consequences.”
He said that in addition to ensuring schools remained safe places for learning, his deputies want to show youth that they have to be responsible for their actions.
“We’re doing everything we can proactively to ensure our deputies are working in unison with our school administrators to ensure the safest learning environment,” Crisafulli said. “School resource deputies will continue to act as guides, coaches, mentors and positive role models to our students.”
He noted that the new procedures had been developed in cooperation with the Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office and were crafted through the Code of Maryland Regulations and relevant state law and best practices.
