Wyoming latest school to hire cop

EXETER – The Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department’s decision to stop offering armed deputies to serve as security details for local schools left two neighboring districts in the lurch. Each took a different tack to address the problem.

Wyoming Valley West is negotiating with Plymouth Borough to contract for police services with the borough department. Wyoming Area decided to create its own school district police force, becoming just the third district in Luzerne County to take advantage of a little-used section of the Pennsylvania School Code.

Section 778 empowers districts to hire a person, with court approval, as a school police officer. That person can carry a gun and a badge and has arrest powers at district buildings and grounds. Whoever is hired must have Act 120 state clearance to carry a weapon. That person for Wyoming Area is Christopher Alberigi, who had been working as a part-time police officer for several municipalities, including West Wyoming.

Alberigi, 38, will earn about $35,000 this year and is considered a district employee, entitled to benefits, including health insurance.

The district, like the 500 others in the state, had several options for security. It could have hired private security guards who wouldn’t have arrest or gun carrying powers or it could have contracted with police departments in Exeter, Wyoming, Exeter Township and West Pittston for school resource officers. School resource officers are employees of the municipal police department they work for, whereas school police officers are employees of the district. The other option is no security on premises.

Wyoming Area opted to join Wilkes-Barre Area and Greater Nanticoke Area as the only districts in the county to organize their own police departments. Information and assistance from Wilkes-Barre Area and its school police officer Brian Lavan were instrumental is making the decision, according to Wyoming Area Superintendent Raymond Bernardi.

Alberigi said he thinks the district made the right choice by creating its one-man force rather than contracting with one or more municipal departments or for unarmed security guards. Since the district’s five schools are located in multiple municipalities, it would not have been able to contract with just one police department. Alberigi said there’s “a huge” advantage because he’ll be able to develop better rapport with students and staff by being a consistent presence rather than having different officers rotating in and out.

When Wyoming Area High School opened its doors Thursday, Alberigi was there to greet students. Wearing a pressed blue uniform and with his gun holstered, the 1989 graduate of the school chatted with students. He was formally introduced in assemblies held for middle and high schoolers before spending time in the cafeteria with students at lunch. When the school bell rang for dismissal, he was there to see the students leave.

Alberigi said that while he’s there as an enforcer of laws, he hopes to be used as an educator, too. He’s working on scheduling seminars for students on the dangers of alcohol and drug use, driving while intoxicated and bullying.

More than anything, he sees his mere presence as crime prevention, rather than being there to make arrests.

While Alberigi and Greater Nanticoke Area’s Mike Wisniewski are on their own at the schools, in Wilkes-Barre Area there’s extra help.

Superintendent Jeffrey Namey said the department has worked well in the seven years it’s been in existence. Wilkes-Barre Area employs two school police officers, both of whom carry guns and have arrest powers. One earns about $60,000 a year and the other about $40,000. Both are former City of Wilkes-Barre police officers. The district also contracts with the city for three uniformed school resource officers at a rate of about $150,000 a year, Namey said.

Though the cost might sound high, Namey said the service the five officers offer is “magnificent.”

“I have absolutely no complaints. It’s one of the best things we’ve done,” Namey said.

While it’s not a common practice for districts in Northeast Pennsylvania, having school police officers is not unheard of. Other districts that have taken advantage of Section 778 include East Stroudsburg Area, Delaware Valley, Towanda Area, Northampton Area, Pleasant Valley and Bangor Area. Statewide, not including the 404-person school police department serving the Philadelphia School District, there are 152 school police officers. There are 148 school resource officers and an additional 599 school security officers.

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