Warren County Sheriff details duties of school resource officers

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include the complete list of SROs serving in Warren County Public Schools and the Bowling Green Independent Schools district. We have removed incorrect information regarding the number of SROs serving the schools. We regret the error.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - With many worried about safety in schools following the Covenant Presbyterian School shooting in Nashville, WBKO spoke with Warren County Sheriff Brett Hightower about what all school resource officers do in Bowling Green.

Hightower says on top of minding the safety of students in school; resource officers also act as an extra set of eyes and ears for the school body as a whole.

“Primarily, they are there to build relationships with our student body, the staff, the administration,” Hightower said. “Just to be there day to day, to interact with the students.”

Though Hightower says an officer’s biggest responsibility is to instill a sense of trust in law enforcement with students.

“What we see is when students may fall through the cracks or have some emotional issues, that they’re there to encourage them, work with them, and build their trust between them and law enforcement.”

The sheriff’s office has worked closely with schools ensuring they have a plan in case of a school shooting that will keep students safe if an officer can’t be on the scene right away.

“We talk about what their response is, before we even wrap, how they should engage, what they should do, how they can keep a safer space, just by doing a few things that we give them information about,” Hightower said.

In the wake of the Nashville school shooting, Hightower says the officers will review the police response and apply what they learn to their own methods.

“It’s always been front in our minds about all these different situations. We study, we watch them, we review them,” Hightower said. “We look at what were failures, what were successes, and we take all that into account.”

For parents that are worried about sending their children to school, Hightower assures them, there’s no safer place.

“There’s less accidents, less injury,” Hightower said. “With the thousands of children that go in and out of the school system each and every day across this nation, there’s very few injuries or accidents or incidents of this nature.”

Hightower also stressed the importance of the old adage; if you see something, say something.

“If it ends up being nothing, no harm, no foul,” Hightower said. “But we would rather be on the safe side, then know that somebody overheard a conversation, saw something on social media, texts, or something of that nature and didn’t say anything to law enforcement.”

According to the Warren County Public Schools, the district’s safety team has 12 members with a combined 310 years of law enforcement experience.

Director of School Safety - Steve Chappell
SRO Jan Tuttle
SRO John Hoghton
SRO Jeff Eversoll
SRO Pete Rich
SRO Kevin Croghan
SRO Brett Kreilein
SRO Gofrey Hamisi
SRO Josh Wright
SRO Jamie Luttrell
SRO Mike Waldrop
SRO Andrew Stidham

According to the Bowling Green Independent School District, the following law enforcement officers serve as SROs:

BGPD Officer Matt Wheat - Bowling Green High School
WCSO Deputy Dominic Ossello - Bowling Green Junior High
WCSO Deputy Rebecca Robbins - BGISD Elementary elementary schools and the Bowling Green Learning Center