We are digging a little deeper into the recent spate of school threats and what can be done to stop them. Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo sits down with Mike Hydeck to discuss the strain these types on incidents have on police resources, and the challenge of keeping up with social media.
We are digging a little deeper into the recent spate of school threats and what can be done to stop them. Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo sits down with Mike Hydeck to discuss the strain these types on incidents have on police resources, and the challenge of keeping up with social media.
Mike Hydeck: This week, a 13-year-old in Waterbury was among the latest people to be charged in connection with a school threat. It's just one of more than dozens of times across the state a school was closed. So how can police do their jobs, both properly and compassionately, as this keeps happening? Joining me now is Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo, good to see you. You were part of a coalition to try to make sure that we can address teenage crime or teenage mishaps like this in a sensitive way, but also know that they know that there are consequences. There's a plan that was worked on. You were part of it years ago. Luke Bronin wrote it. Police chiefs and mayors across the state were a part of it. First of all, if you can look back a little bit, what was adopted from that, and is it working and sort of where do we need to go?
Chief Fernando Spagnolo: Great. Well, listen, we know that when we're dealing with juveniles, one of the worst things we could do is put them into the juvenile justice system. So we're always looking for ways to divert any issues or offenses that may occur with kids and get them and their families some assistance and try to have them make better choices and go down a different path. So I think it's been really beneficial. There's been a lot of work done with the juvenile justice system, and we've seen some great results over the last several years.
Mike Hydeck: So you've, in recent years, in the summer times, you've had cars repeatedly stolen by the same teenagers over and over again. There were certain things that changed where, okay, they don't, they can't, they can be held until the parents get there for an hour. I'm making this up as far as the times, but then it's a little bit longer. Now, are some of those things when they understand consequences, is it proving effective? Is that the gap, what we have to help them understand that actions have consequences? Is that a hard thing for you to deal with?
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Chief Fernando Spagnolo: In some cases. We still have that small group of kids that we're failing, really, as a community, as a state. There's still a very, very small group, especially in the urban centers throughout the State of Connecticut, where there's kids that are still engaged in recidivism and repeat car theft, but we're still working to find ways to assist them.
Mike Hydeck: When we talk about these school threats. This can lead to overtime. This can lead to buses that pick kids up and send them back. So you're still paying for bus service, even though you know, no class and no instruction. Does this end up impacting your budget in the long run if you see a bunch of these?
Chief Fernando Spagnolo: So it's a huge strain on resources for the entire municipality, right? You know, we work very collaboratively with with our superintendent of schools and our school district to make sure that school is safe. You know, the primary thing we want to do is make sure that the school is safe, that the community knows that the school is safe, and we want to keep school open. We've made several arrests, five to date this year on school-based threats that were made in Waterbury, all posted on social media. We work closely with our partners in the state, in the FBI. We put a lot of resources. Some of these arrests are made at three o'clock in the morning because we're working on them throughout the night. So yeah, it's an absolute strain, not only on the budget, but on services available for the rest of the community members from the police department and the school system. So, you know, we're working closely with with Dr. Schwartz, our interim superintendent now, looking at curriculum, trying to put some more information in there about social media responsibility. And you know what an emergency response is like, and why it's so important not to abuse that system.
Face the Facts
Face the Facts with NBC Connecticut goes beyond the headlines, asking newsmakers the tough questions, giving an in-depth analysis of the big stories.
Mike Hydeck: So one of the things Senator Seminara brought up, said, maybe schools can impart some of this in the classroom throughout the day. Say, 'look, this would actually cost a lot of money for the whole city to deal with if something as small as a social media threat ends up being bigger.' I mean, could you put dollars and cents on it and then say, 'Look, this is what it costs for one of these things to happen.' Maybe that gets parents attention. Maybe that gets everybody else's attention. Or is that not a good idea?
Chief Fernando Spagnolo: You know, I mean, put it, putting a dollar tag on it is certainly something that we could do easily. I think parents are frustrated and kind of at their wits end as well. I think we need to, I was just talking to Commissioner Higgins over the past couple of days about these school threats from from DESPP. And you know, one of the topics that we're really looking into, and there's some early conversations about, is, how do we support parents in this? Right? I think parents and guardians need to get in on the front end of this. We need to understand a little bit more about social media, maybe monitor what's going on with social media with the children in our lives, and make sure that they understand the impact that, you know, negative postings could have on them, and really the whole community.
Mike Hydeck: Do things like police athletic leagues and after school programs, Boys and Girls Club, can it be addressed in those areas, too? Because we know that helps keep kids busy and off the streets and out of trouble, but maybe that message needs to be kind of funneled through those agencies as well.
Chief Fernando Spagnolo: I think that anywhere we can funnel the message through would be great. It could be through the police activity league, it could be through a sporting association. It could be really in any type of activity that a child participates in, where we could send that messaging.
Mike Hydeck: Is there a way that we should have state lawmakers address this, or do you think it's more of a local issue? Should it be talked about in the next session? Or do you think it really needs to be school leaders, authorities and the like?
Chief Fernando Spagnolo: Mike, as I talk to my counterparts across the state, we're all dealing with these, these school-based threats on a very regular basis. I think that, you know, in Waterbury, we have a good formula right now, and there's good collaboration between the school district and the police department and the mayor's office. I think that there's a lot of communities throughout Connecticut that are working in that same way, but it's something that certainly should be addressed on a state level.
Mike Hydeck: Chief Spagnolo, thanks so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it.
Chief Fernando Spagnolo: My pleasure. Thank you.
