Sheriff Crenshaw appoints New SROs

Last month, the Oconee County Council approved nine School Resources Officers (SRO) for the School District of Oconee County. This means that each public school in the county will now have its own officer. Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw has already appointed seven of those new SROs. “We have had a lot of interest within the Sheriff’s Office to fill those SRO spots and we currently have named seven out of the nine. So far, we have selected Deputies Roy McKenzie, Callie Moore, Angel Jennings, Robert Sparkman, Adam Poore, Jordei Jameson, and John Towery. They’re all from Uniform Patrol Units, some from day shift and some on night shift. Even though we have named them, they are continuing to do their Uniform Patrol duties and our staff is currently interviewing replacement hires for those deputies. We have selected five individuals that are currently going through physicals, drug screens and psychological evaluations. If all that comes back we will be hiring in addition to naming these seven five new deputies. So, the process is moving along kind of according to our plan.” The new SRO positions were created to ensure that every public school in the county has the presence of an armed and trained officer. Specific school assignments for these new SROs will come later. Even though money to hire SROs to cover all schools is being included in the new county and school budgets, the new SROs won’t start duty until their former deputy jobs are filled.