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Tarpon Springs School Officers Called Best In State

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: June 13, 2008

Updated:

TARPON SPRINGS - The Police Department's small cadre of school-based officers has been recognized as best in the state by the Florida Association of School Resource Officers.

The honor is especially sweet for Tarpon police, who lobbied to have their own officers patrol local schools. Other schools in the county have SROs from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

The Police Department SRO unit patrols Tarpon Springs High School; Tarpon Springs Middle School; and Sunset Hills and Tarpon Springs elementary schools and Tarpon Springs Fundamental School.

The SRO unit, led by Cpl. Mike Kazouris and his K-9 partner Umo, also includes Officers Albin Quinones, Katherine Burke and Emmanuel Magoulis.

Police Chief Mark LeCouris, the acting city manager, noted local officers only took over the SRO duties at Tarpon Springs High School last year. Prior to that the school's SROs came from the Pinellas Sheriff's Office.

Local officers "employed the same successful strategies and routines they have used at the elementary and middle school levels," LeCouris said.

"Protecting our children, our most precious resource, is the number one priority of the unit," he said.

Each officer works with school administrators to develop a comprehensive plan that is implemented training at each school.

In its first school year patrolling Tarpon Springs High School, the SRO unit identified the top three disciplinary issues that had to be dealt with: drugs, fighting and truancy.

Officers got to know the students, visited classrooms, were very visible and attended school functions and events.

Officers also conducted sweeps of the parking areas and school grounds to locate any illegal drug use. As a result, of the focused effort there has been a "significantly large reduction in the number of school reassignments due to drug activity," LeCouris said.

Tarpon police and school administrators also adopted a no-tolerance policy for fighting, which led to a decrease in suspensions.

Patrol units also work to identify truants skipping school.

In a community-based approach, officers met with neighbors around the school and area businesses to enlist the community in the effort to reduce truancy.

As a result there has been a decline in truancy, LeCouris reported.

When elementary school is in session, K-9 Umo helps struggling readers by allowing them to read to him when he is not on patrol. Recent data revealed 98 percent of the students in the program increased their reading assessment scores, LeCouris said.

Over the summer the SROs continue to keep local youngsters on track through the department's long-running Cops and Kids Program.

Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815-1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.

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