Town, school district agree on staffing of resource officers in high school and middle school

Riverhead High School and Riverhead Middle School will have uniformed police officers on site for the next two school years, under an agreement between the school district and Riverhead Town.

Two Riverhead Police officers, Eric Cohen and Kaley Castantine, will be reassigned from the town’s community policing unit to be school resource officers. Cohen will be assigned primarily to the Riverhead high school, while Castantine will be assigned primarily to the middle school, according to an agreement passed by the school board Monday and the Town Board last week. 

The officers will be uniformed and may carry weapons — concealed, in certain cases — when authorized by the police chief, the agreement says. Both the high school and middle school are in Riverhead and in Riverhead Police Department jurisdiction. 

“The SROs will enhance the safety and security at these two buildings, while also serving as helpful resources for our students and their families, providing educational opportunities, and enhancing the relationships of students and the community with law enforcement,” Interim Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said in a letter to the community Wednesday. 

The officers will be alerted if there is a violation of the law on school grounds and are authorized to investigate criminal activity, according to the agreement. The officers are not to act as school disciplinarians, nor participate in student searches conducted by school officials, the agreement says.

The officers will have many other responsibilities, according to the agreement, including instructing specialized classes on topics such as crime prevention; referring students and families to community agencies and resources; assisting school personnel in emergencies and creating emergency plans; assisting the district’s security director with the enforcement of child custody orders and domestic violence restraining orders; and attending school functions, conferences and other meetings when requested.  

This is not the first time Riverhead’s secondary schools have had a school resource officer. The school district and town split the cost 50/50 of one Riverhead Police SRO starting in 2018 and until the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools in 2020. The officer did not return after school buildings reopened in 2021.

There is also an SRO in place at Phillips Avenue Elementary School, one of the district’s K-4 schools, according to the district’s security director. The Southampton Town Police Department provides the SRO at the Phillips Avenue school, which located in the hamlet of Riverside in the Town of Southampton. The officer is funded 100% by Southampton Town.

Cost has been the bone of contention between Riverhead Town and school officials. School district officials said last year that they did not want to split the cost of the officers, but started conversations with the town after three middle school students were arrested for bringing weapons into school in June 2023.

The district will pay half the cost of one of the officers during the 2024-2025 school year, and 50% of the cost of each of the two officers in the 2025-2026 school year, according to the agreement. Any overtime costs will be paid for by the town. 

Both SROs, Cohen and Castantine have a current yearly salaries of $143,105, as well as benefits under their police union contracts. Police salaries are set to increase by 2.5% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026 under the town’s contract with the union, the Riverhead Police Benevolent Association.

Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller said both Cohen and Castantine are members of the town’s specialized Community Oriented Policing Enforcement (COPE) unit, which responds to community complaints of criminal activity and quality of life issues. The unit is actively involved with local schools.

The chief said the goal of having officers in the school is to increase the department’s relationship with the community.

Hegermiller said he removing the two officers from the COPE unit should not have a negative impact on staffing the town’s police force. The Town Board has made it a priority to fund the hiring of more police personnel. The chief said he believes the department can absorb dedicating two officers to the school district.

In addition to the two police officers, the Riverhead Central School District employs 44 security guards, according to a staff analysis presented to the school board in March. The district’s security staff has more than doubled since 2018, according to the staff analysis. The district also recently invested in upgrades to its security cameras and door access technology in the middle school and high school. 

Calls to place officers in the schools and ramp up security measures were loudest in spring 2023, after three middle school students were arrested on weapon possession charges. In the months before those incidents a high school student was arrested for bringing loose bullets into school and a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee led to the death of three children and three adults.

MORE COVERAGE: Students and parents ask for increased school security after bullet incident, as administration assures safety

“We are excited about the opportunities the SROs present for our students,” Pedisich wrote in her letter. “Of course, the additional security they represent provides an enhancement to our already comprehensive safety and security protocols. More importantly, through their teaching in special classes and their daily interactions with our students, we believe a better and more productive relationship will be fostered between our students, the community, and law enforcement.”