BY DESTINY JOHNSON
Journal Staff Writer

The Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training, in conjunction with the Royal
Bahamas Police Force, added 27 new School Resource Officers (SRO) to school campuses
following a graduation ceremony last Friday at the Paul Farquharson Conference Center, police
headquarters.
Coordinator of School Policing and Officer in charge of the South-Central Division Chief
Superintendent Chadwell Hanna said since the resource officers have entered, schools’ safety has
improved.
“We see a decrease in the fighting,” he said.
“Particularly after school, and you know, we’ve put in place the school busing system. We have
students who catch bus after school.
“They could be picked up right off the school campus to avoid the opportunity to get themselves
into these fights after school and the SROs are in those classrooms, preventing incidents before
something happens.
“What happen if they get worried of something brewing? They intervene and prevent it. from
happening.
“We are happy to see that the indicators are showing that school safety is indeed improving and
one of the main reasons for that is the partnership, not only the SROs, the principals, the
teachers, the other security officers [and] all members of the school environment working
together to ensure that school is safe and we were happy, what we see so far.”
Chief Supt. Hanna said this cohort is very diverse as officers have come from all islands to help
expand the protection of the students while on school campuses.
“As I said, in addition to the indicators, you know these kids are looking up to these SRO
officers as mentors,” he said.
“Some of them, they don’t have a father figure in the home, which we understand is important.
So, these kids look at these as our rules as mentors, positive role models. So, it’s all about
preventing, as I said earlier, you know, too many of the crime victims and crime suspects are
young people, teenagers, young teenagers.
“And now, if we could intervene and divert them from the junior and senior high, in some cases,
the primary school level where we see those red flags, we could prevent, divert them from
getting into a life of crime and this is why school policing program is so important to reducing
crime.

“In in all of the junior and senior high schools here in Providence, I think it’s about 15.
“We also have it in five schools in Grand Bahama, three schools in Abaco, three schools in
Eleuthera, two in Andros and one in Exuma.
“This particular course has included officers from all the other major islands and now, Inagua,
Mayaguana Crooked Island, Acklins, Long Island, Cat Island and Berry Islands and Bimini.
“So, we are exploring expansion and deepening of the program across The Bahamas.”
Chief Superintendent Hanna said in the near future, there are plans to expand even to the primary
schools. With this cohort, there are 60 SROs across The Bahamas.