Police school resource officer headed to BHS

By Dana Casadei

In what primarily boils down to a language change, a third amended agreement between Bloomfield Township police and Bloomfield Hills School District for additional public safety and security services was unanimously approved by the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees at their meeting on Monday, August 14.

The current model with the school district is that they have a school security officer and a school liaison officer. Now, due to the school district’s hiring of a security personnel and a school nurse – who do some of the tasks that were completed by the school security officer provided by the township – the two positions of school security officer and school liaison officer are being combined into one role, school resource officer.

“We felt the need to combine the two roles and change the title,” said Bloomfield Township Police Chief James Gallagher, who noted the title of school resource officer is recognized by many agencies. 

There will now be two officers filling the roles of school resource officer, officer Jennifer Lower and officer Thomas Riney, who combined will be bringing nearly 40 years of experience with the Bloomfield Township Police Department to their new roles.

The salary of this position will remain the same as the school security officer and school liaison officer, with the school district paying Bloomfield Township 75 percent of each school resource officer's salary and fringe benefits.

This third amended agreement had already been reviewed, approved and signed by outgoing Bloomfield Hills School District Superintendent,Patrick Watson, and Michelle Southward, Bloomfield Hills Schools board president.