Putnam To Receive $1.6M To Boost School Safety

Putnam County set to receive some $1.6 million to add more Student Resource Officers and boost school safety.

Sheriff Eddie Farris that money comes from a $140 million appropriation by the state. He said Putnam County has approximately 20 SROs assigned to 19 schools.

“With this grant money we’re certainly going to increase that number hopefully, I had requested that from the county commission budget hearing,” Farris said. “So we’re hoping to increase that some.”

Farris said they want to increase the SRO-to-student ratio as student populations increase across the district. He named Cookeville High School, Upperman High School, and Prescott South.

Farris said the goal of the governor’s allocation is to help schools that are not able to afford SROs at every school. He said now that the funding is there, the next step will be to find well-trained officers to staff those positions.

“It’s difficult to find people right now that want to work in law enforcement, career people, and that’s certainly who we’re looking for and honestly Putnam County, our standards are higher than that,” Farris said. “We’re pretty choosy when it comes to finding people who say they want a career in law enforcement. We certainly feel like we need to get the cream of the crop to staff our office, and I believe we do.”

Farris said at the end of the day, the sheriff’s office main goal is safety for all Putnam County residents, especially those in the school systems.