As Wilton considers adding a school resource officer to the Police Department, Select Board members met Monday with former Milford SRO George Durham, who now works part-time for the Wilton police.

Tom Schultz, who was sworn in as the board’s newest member on Monday, had come before the board as a resident a few weeks prior to advocate for an SRO in the Wilton-Lyndeborough district. The Wilton Select Board would have to approve a resource officer.

Durham emphasized that the presence of an SRO gives students the opportunity to form a face-to-face relationship with a police officer.

“You’ll see more students coming forward to talk about things that they wouldn’t normally talk about because they don’t see us – other than driving by in a car,” he said.

Durham noted that an SRO would likely increase the number of school-related police reports, but “that’s stuff that wasn’t reported that can now be dealt with sooner,” he said, adding that it wasn’t just students who would have direct access to a police officer, but faculty and staff as well.

Durham explained that the town, school district and Police Department could work together to develop a memorandum of understanding that suited their specific needs, based around the “triangle” of SRO responsibilities: counsel, education and enforcement.

In Milford, much of Durham’s role was educational, such as attending science classes to discuss forensics, or health classes to teach D.A.R.E., he said.

The Select Board agreed that should they move forward with the SRO position, the memorandum of understanding would specifically address the amount of time spent at each school, the age and experience of the officer and the assignment of a dedicated SRO police cruiser.

Newly appointed board Chair D.J. Garcia added that his next meeting with the WLC Strategic Planning Committee will be April 8. With that in mind, he asked his fellow board members if they were ready to take a position.

Schultz reiterated his staunch support for an SRO, but acknowledged fellow Selectman Kermit Williams’ previous reservations. Williams noted that one of his biggest issues was cost, expressing his desire for the school district to cover a larger majority of the funding required to create the position, as opposed to the current proposal of a 60/40 split between the district and the town.

Garcia pointed out that, regardless of the split, it would ultimately be Wilton taxpayer money going toward the position.