Police close to completing probe of calls

Brookfield Police Chief Dan Faustino said police have identified two suspects who they believe made threatening and vulgar telephone calls to Brookfield school students.
Police are awaiting phone records and hope to conduct at least one more interview before deciding whether to file charges, he said.
“I am confident in the safety of the school,” Faustino said.
Police were notified of the calls Sunday, and identified more students who received them later in the week.
School Superintendent Toby Gibson informed parents and guardians of the investigation Monday, and announced that police would increase their presence at the school and banned students from bringing backpacks or bags to school.
Police were going to increase their normal presence at tonight’s Homecoming football game, but Faustino said he expected police would start to reduce their presence at the school next week. From the police perspective, the school can end its ban on backpacks and bookbags, Faustino said, but the decision is Gibson’s.
Gibson said Friday afternoon he would take the weekend to decide whether to end the ban.
Long before this event occurred, school and police officials started talking about the hiring of a school resource officer, a police officer stationed full time at the school.
The cost of the officer would be shared between the police department and the school, and Gibson told the school board Wednesday that the district can use the new wellness money allotment from the state for that purpose.
Faustino previously said that he had identified funds in his budget.
The only thing preventing the hiring of an officer – Faustino said he already has talked to potential officers – is the reaching of an agreement between the township and the school district outlining the program and the officer’s duties, Gibson said.
Gibson said he hoped to have an agreement for the school board to consider at its Nov. 13 meeting, although Faustino floated the idea of a joint trustee-school board meeting for the two sides to act.
The officer would not only be able to handle any issues that develop in school immediately, the position would free up additional patrol time for road officers, Faustino said. Currently, Cpl. Ron Mann is school liaison, assigned to be at the school regularly, but he also has patrol duties to attend to.