Syracuse, N.Y. July 4^th, 2023 – When Syracuse schools open next fall, there should be a retired police officer at each of the district’s K-8 and middle schools.

The police department will begin recruiting up to 20 retired cops to provide security in the schools under an agreement approved today by the city council.

The plan to staff the schools with armed, retired officers was first announced last summer, partly in response to an incident in which a K-8 student brought a gun to school. But implementation has taken longer than expected, said Richard Shoff, first deputy police chief.

The school board on June 14 approved spending up to $1.23 million to cover the costs of the deployment, including training and salaries. The retirees will work for the police department, which will cover incidental costs, including the cost of supplying guns and body cameras, Shoff said.

The city’s high schools are already staffed by active-duty police officers known as school resource officers, or SROs. The retirees at K-8 and middle schools will be known as special police officers, or SPOs.

The SPOs will be supervised by the police department. However, the school district and the police department will share decisions about hiring, firing or transferring SPOs.

Now that the agreement is in place, the challenge will be to recruit enough retired officers, Shoff said.

“The wild card is, can they find 20 of them?” he said.

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