Pawtucket Police Officers Steve Ricco, hermano Pereira, Jeff Davis and Robert Cardente

By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — Four Pawtucket Police officers were among the first class of a new School Resource Officer Training program held at the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy at CCRI in Lincoln.

The officers were among 31 from Rhode Island and Massachusetts who took part in the week-long program, taught by members of the National Association of School Resource Officers. The program is a first for the area, because it brought the NASRO trainers to the local police officers rather than having them travel to various out-of-state regional seminar locations.
Chief Anthony Silva, Director of the Municipal Training Academy, said that by having the trainers come here, the cost savings was substantial for the local participants, who typically have to pay for air fare and other expenses to attend the training sessions, sometimes spending as much as $1,500 per officer.
However, thanks to Pawtucket sharing a grant that it received, combined with additional federal grant money from the Rhode Island Justice Commission, 18 Rhode Island police officers, from Pawtucket, Providence, and other communities throughout the state, were able to take part in the training at a substantially reduced cost of $95.
The other 13 candidates, mostly from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, paid $495  for the class, but many could also save money by commuting to the class.
Silva said the idea began with a police chiefs’ meeting in December. Pawtucket Police Chief George L. Kelley III  had received a $4,000 grant to fund the training for the Pawtucket Police officers, with the help of Pawtucket Senator James E. Doyle and Rep. Peter Kilmartin. 
The Pawtucket Police Department, with the City Council and School Committee’s approval, is aiming to place a school resource officer in each of the city’s high schools, Tolman and Shea, by spring. Although funding for the program, expected to cost about $100,000 per year, has not been completely targeted, city officials have said they are committed to finding the money in the budget to get the program started implemented now and having it run through the remainder of the school year.
Kelley sent four officers, two candidates and two alternatives, to receive the training. Participating from Pawtucket were officers Jeffrey Davis, Steve Ricco, Hermano Pereira, and Robert Cardente. Davis is planning to take the SRO post at Tolman High School and Ricco will be at Shea, with Pereira and Cardente available as substitutes when needed.
Kelley said he is hoping to be able to have the SROs in place for the start of the last tri-mester at the two high schools.
Silva said that if there was a guaranteed enrollment of 10 -12 participants, the NASRO trainers agreed to come to the academy, held in classrooms at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Lincoln, RI campus. “We had a good response,” said Silva. As an added bonus, NASRO offered one free seat for every 10 people who signed up, further reducing the cost.
Kelley noted that the SRO program that is currently in place at the city’s junior high schools, thanks to a grant to reduce gang involvement, is working well, and he said he looks forward to having the SROs installed at the high schools as soon as possible.
On a related issue, the police department is requesting a $60,000 appropriation from the City Council’s Ad Hoc Substance Abuse Prevention/DARE Fund Committee to purchase two marked police vehicles for use by the SROs at the high schools.