Barrington town manager supports funding full-time SRO

Jim Cunha about SRO: 'He's a great resource. And he's also armed.'

Posted 4/6/18

A year ago, Jim Cunha proposed hiring four additional firefighters in town. 

The Barrington Town Manager said the extra staffing would allow the fire department to run two rescues, thus …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Barrington town manager supports funding full-time SRO

Jim Cunha about SRO: 'He's a great resource. And he's also armed.'

Posted

A year ago, Jim Cunha proposed hiring four additional firefighters in town. 

The Barrington Town Manager said the extra staffing would allow the fire department to run two rescues, thus providing better emergency coverage to local residents. 

Earlier this year, Mr. Cunha's push for increased personnel allowed Barrington firefighters to respond to a local man who was experiencing chest pain. With the first rescue on an earlier call, the department dispatched the second rescue to the man's house. Shortly after the second rescue began transporting the individual to the hospital, the Barrington man went into cardiac arrest.

Firefighters — all are EMT-cardiac certified — were able to bring the man back to life. 

"They call it a save," said Mr. Cunha. 

The town manager believes that the resident's outcome could have been much different if the fire department had been unable to send out the second rescue. Mutual aid from another community, said Mr. Cunha, always takes longer to respond.

"It (mutual aid) certainly wouldn't have been there as quickly as Rescue 2," he added.

Mr. Cunha said hiring the four additional firefighters last year was an example of smart budgeting — "getting the best bang for your buck." It was made even smarter when the local firefighters union secured a significant grant to off-set costs associated with the additional manpower. 

Now the town manager is calling for taxpayers to support another budgeting expenditure — funding for a full-time school resource officer.

"In today's environment, our schools are being threatened," said Mr. Cunha, a retired Navy officer who managed anti-terrorism and base security. "We have a very safe school system, but no school is immune."

Mr. Cunha said a full-time school resource officer would improve the safety and security of the town's local public schools. He said Barrington Police SRO Josh Melo has helped the schools in a variety of ways, despite being in the schools only on a part-time basis. Officer Melo currently spends about two days each week in the schools and the rest of his time on regular police shifts. 

"He's a great resource," said Mr. Cunha. The town manager referenced Officer Melo's work addressing cyber-bullying, social media issues and improving relations between young residents and the police department. 

"And he's also armed," said Mr. Cunha.

The town manager said Officer Melo's increased presence in the schools would increase the level of security at the schools. Barrington Police Chief John LaCross shared a similar message during a forum on safety and security held late last month: School safety is the SRO's top priority, said Chief LaCross. 

Mr. Cunha said a full-time SRO is not the only way to make the schools safer, but it is one part of a multi-pronged approach, and it is a smart budgeting step.

The proposed municipal budget is calling for an additional $107,786 for the police department — most of that increase will support the salary and benefits for the full-time SRO. The proposed school budget includes $25,000 for the SRO. (The proposed municipal budget totals $16.6 million, while the proposed school budget is $50.8 million.)

Mr. Cunha said town and school officials owe it to the community to do everything possible to make local schools safer without changing the culture of the buildings.

"We're not trying to turn this into a police state," said Mr. Cunha. "But the last thing we want is to look in the mirror and say we could have done more."

Selling a second rescue

Mr. Cunha said he considered a number of factors before proposing a staffing increase for the Barrington Fire Department last year. 

But in the end, it was the desire to improve the town's emergency response effort that led officials to recommend increasing the staffing from 24 full-time firefighters to 28 (not including the fire chief).

After receiving taxpayer approval, the town began the hiring process for the additional firefighters. It took about a month to select four candidates and another few months while those firefighters completed their training. 

"They basically began on Jan. 1," said Mr. Cunha.

Since the beginning of the year, Barrington has sent Rescue 2 on 67 calls. Mr. Cunha said the additional manpower allows the town to respond to nearly 100 percent of all emergency calls and has drastically reduced the need for mutual aid from neighboring communities.

"Our firefighters are able to respond quicker," he said. 

In addition, the increased staffing levels have provided an improved level of safety for firefighters when they respond to a structure fire or other emergency.

"The NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) says we should have 10 (firefighters on each shift)," said Mr. Cunha. "We have seven. We went from six to seven."

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.