Eastern Ky. school district’s police dept. sworn in
Harlan County December 29 2022
Six police officers were sworn in to serve on the Harlan County Public Schools Police Department.
The officers will serve at the district’s schools and are dedicated to protecting students, faculty and staff. Those officers have 100 years of law enforcement experience combined.
”It’s a great feeling, and I want all the officers to serve as role models in those schools,” said Harlan County Schools Chief of Police Matt Cope. “Build strong relationships with the students and staff at those schools, to make them feel comfortable, to share information with the SRO’s and to be able to provide Harlan County Schools to be the safest possible that they can be.”
Harlan County Schools Superintendent Brent Roark said he is excited to continue the schools’ partnership with the Harlan County Sheriff’s Office in ensuring students and staff across the district are safe.
“With the passage of HB 63 and amendments to KRS 148.4414, it became evident that we had to move quickly to comply with the provisions of KRS 158.4414 which requires a resource officer on each campus,” he said. “We already had a contract in place with the Harlan County Sheriff’s Department to provide resource officers for Harlan County High School. We were contracting with sheriff’s deputies on an hourly basis for part-time coverage at all eight of our elementary schools.”
