SHOW TOPIC
Good to Know: Safety and Security Information with Officer Jason Young
SPECIAL GUEST
Officer Jason Young, Seneca Valley School District Safety and Security Supervisor
Officer Jason Young has previous law enforcement experience most recently as a Police Officer for Jackson Township, as well as eight years working as a Deputy Sheriff for Butler County where he presented the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program to numerous Butler County public and private schools; organized safety lectures for teachers on active shooters; and field trained new law enforcement deputies. He also worked for nearly ten years with the Saxonburg Borough Police Department where he started as a Patrolman and was later promoted to Patrol Supervisor. Additional service includes his first year as a Patrolman with the Fawn Township Police Department in Tarentum, Pa. His training highlights include Crisis Intervention Training (C.I.T) that focuses on mental health incidents and a Field Training Officer certification through Penn State University. Officer Young earned an Associates Degree in Emergency Services-Police Services Option from Butler County Community College and attended the Municipal Police Academy (ACT 120) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• What Crisis Intervention Training is and how it is beneficial to the District
• What various law enforcement privileges are performed by this role
• What areas of investigative technology are employed by the District to keep students and staff safe
• Why building relationships with external groups is helpful in this role
USEFUL INFORMATION
https://www.svsd.net/domain/2302
SHOW TOPIC
Good to Know: Safety and Security Information with Officer Jason Young
SPECIAL GUEST
Officer Jason Young, Seneca Valley School District Safety and Security Supervisor
Officer Jason Young has previous law enforcement experience most recently as a Police Officer for Jackson Township, as well as eight years working as a Deputy Sheriff for Butler County where he presented the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program to numerous Butler County public and private schools; organized safety lectures for teachers on active shooters; and field trained new law enforcement deputies. He also worked for nearly ten years with the Saxonburg Borough Police Department where he started as a Patrolman and was later promoted to Patrol Supervisor. Additional service includes his first year as a Patrolman with the Fawn Township Police Department in Tarentum, Pa. His training highlights include Crisis Intervention Training (C.I.T) that focuses on mental health incidents and a Field Training Officer certification through Penn State University. Officer Young earned an Associates Degree in Emergency Services-Police Services Option from Butler County Community College and attended the Municipal Police Academy (ACT 120) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• What Crisis Intervention Training is and how it is beneficial to the District
• What various law enforcement privileges are performed by this role
• What areas of investigative technology are employed by the District to keep students and staff safe
• Why building relationships with external groups is helpful in this role
USEFUL INFORMATION
https://www.svsd.net/domain/2302
E51 Jason Young
File Name: Voices E51 Jason Young.mp3
File Length: 00:13:19
FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
00:00:02:27 - 00:00:10:06
Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a National Award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
00:00:11:13 - 00:00:25:22
Jeff Krakoff: Good morning, this is Jeff Krakoff. We're going to have a brief series of good to know - safety and security updates this morning. We're talking with Jason Young, who is supervisor of safety and security with Seneca Valley School District. Welcome.
00:00:26:26 - 00:00:27:11
Jason Young: Thank you.
00:00:27:22 - 00:00:38:08
Jeff Krakoff: So why don't you first talk a little bit about your background, I know you've got a pretty vast law enforcement history before coming to the school district in your current role.
00:00:38:13 - 00:00:41:04
Jeff Krakoff: Talk a little bit about your background and experiences.
00:00:42:03 - 00:01:16:04
Jason Young: Sure. I was a Butler County deputy sheriff when I first got out of the police academy and I worked some part-time jobs as well. One of the things at the sheriff's office that probably got me started with to be in a school was I was a Dare officer, so I would go out and teach the Dare program to fifth graders. And I did that for approximately seven years, and then I was approached by Jackson Township Police Department to come in and be a school resource officer at Seneca Valley.
00:01:16:26 - 00:01:33:05
Jason Young: And from there, I worked as a school resource officer for about five and a half six years total until I was approached by Seneca Valley to take over their safety and security department.
00:01:33:15 - 00:01:45:15
Jeff Krakoff: Okay. I know one of your big areas of responsibility is crisis intervention training. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and how it's beneficial to the school district?
00:01:45:29 - 00:02:28:27
Jason Young: Sure. Crisis intervention training It was something I took whenever I was at the sheriff's office, and it's still ongoing. It was, I believe, first brought in to Butler County back in 2012, and I was probably one of the first groups to go through and it's it's a week week-long long program. It's about 40 hours. Well, it's more than 40 hours where they bring in experts with developmental disabilities. They bring in people who are experts in dealing with PTSD and veterans, how law enforcement would react with mental health commitments, suicide prevention, mental trauma,
00:02:30:22 - 00:02:56:06
Jason Young: the different medications that are out there that people take, personality disorders. And it just gives a better understanding for law enforcement on how when you come up on a situation rather than just going right to use of force and handcuffing people or or anything, any type of a physical type of altercation to try and de-escalate the situation.
00:02:56:24 - 00:03:03:07
Jeff Krakoff: OK, is this kind of a year-long kind of thing? Or are there certain points in the year where you're you're doing ongoing training?
00:03:04:00 - 00:03:10:28
Jason Young: They do it usually. Once you've gone through the training, you're kind of certified to do it. So there's really no refreshers.
00:03:11:09 - 00:03:11:24
Jeff Krakoff: OK.
00:03:11:26 - 00:03:34:27
Jason Young: But they just I know they just wrapped up another session probably three weeks ago, and I think they do it three times a year for municipal officers, campus police, educators. There have been educators in the class and it's primarily law enforcement, but it is open to anybody who's dealing with a public or mental health issues.
00:03:35:04 - 00:03:41:29
Jeff Krakoff: OK, great. So you know your lead of safety and security, but you're also a sworn police officer.
00:03:42:08 - 00:03:42:23
Jason Young: I am.
00:03:43:20 - 00:03:47:28
Jeff Krakoff: What are some of the things you're able to do for the district in that role?
00:03:48:21 - 00:04:08:14
Jason Young: Well, one of the advantages of being a sworn police officer and I would and that that's through a court order through the Court of Common Pleas. So there was a court order that because I have of course, gone through the police academy and the training to be a police officer prior to this. So the common pleas judge then
00:04:10:04 - 00:04:55:15
Jason Young: made an order that swore me in as a police officer. Some of the things I can do is look up different things on J-Net. And you know, and to me, I know what J-Net is. But to explain J-Net, J-Net is a website that all police officers, law enforcement state police can go to to look up driver's license information vehicle registrations. So if you want to run, if you want to run a plate, you know you have a vehicle, you need a plate ran, you can run that plate, find out who comes back to, and it just helps expedite a situation where I don't have to call another police officer down or now I have a school radio, but my radio also ties into the 9-1-1 system.
00:04:56:04 - 00:04:56:19
Jeff Krakoff: Okay.
00:04:56:21 - 00:05:26:28
Jason Young: so I'm able to. Again, rather than calling 9-1-1, I've just like I would as when I was a police officer, I can use my portable radio. My school radio to contact 9-1-1, as well as monitor activity going on that, you know, if there's a situation that I need to react to. I can. I can definitely react to it. Or if they need to get a hold of me because of some sort of a an incident that's occurring near a school.
00:05:27:06 - 00:05:32:00
Jason Young: They can get ahold of me directly rather than try and use cell phones and such. It's just a faster way.
00:05:32:08 - 00:05:39:01
Jeff Krakoff: Right. It's all about fast. It's all about technology, right? So I think we all know there are cameras everywhere in the world we live in.
00:05:39:15 - 00:05:40:00
Jason Young: There are.
00:05:40:14 - 00:05:46:11
Jeff Krakoff: What are some of the investigative technologies that the district and you use to keep everybody safe?
00:05:47:03 - 00:05:49:15
Jason Young: I can give you some of them. I can't give you all of them.
00:05:50:08 - 00:05:51:18
Jeff Krakoff: We are on a need-to-know basis, right?
00:05:51:24 - 00:06:12:12
Jason Young: Sure. But the ones that are the ones that the public would be aware of. That's that's public information, of course, is that we have surveillance cameras everywhere. But I should say every work, anywhere in the public settings there's there's not in a private setting, there's none in rooms that there is expectation of privacy.
00:06:12:14 - 00:06:12:29
Jeff Krakoff: Got it.
00:06:13:01 - 00:06:21:28
Jason Young: And we're not allowed to do that. However, in any public areas, outside areas, that's all fair game. So we do have cameras everywhere.
00:06:22:00 - 00:06:26:04
Jason Young: We're always expanding our camera coverage because no matter how many you have, you always need more.
00:06:27:19 - 00:07:05:05
Jason Young: And one of the other technologies that came available to us a few years back and this ties into Butler County, Allegheny County, I believe Mercer as well. Beaver County, is license plate reader cameras, and they're all through Jackson Township and Butler County, and we were fortunate to get some for for our campuses as well so we can monitor the traffic coming in and out. One of the things, though I should point out, is these are not traffic enforcement cameras because everybody thinks license plate rear cameras- oh the police are going to be pulling people over.
00:07:05:14 - 00:07:15:23
Jason Young: And that's not what they're for. They just focus on a license plate so that if I need to look at a specific time, I can look and see who came on campus and what time they came on campus.
00:07:16:03 - 00:07:20:14
Jeff Krakoff: So basically, if an incident occurs, then you're going to look at that data.
00:07:20:25 - 00:07:30:18
Jason Young: Yeah, I'm not going in looking every day to see who's coming on campus or anything, since this is not Big Brother, is watching. This is only if it's on a on a needed basis.
00:07:30:26 - 00:07:38:14
Jeff Krakoff: Got it! So tell me about external groups that you need to develop relationships with and how do you do that?
00:07:39:25 - 00:08:10:10
Jason Young: One of the biggest groups that I just became part of is the Butler County Chiefs Association. And because I'm kind of a one man show here as far as my department is, I'm the only police, the police officer that is employed specifically by the school district. So I guess you can call me the chief, the lone soldier here as far as the department goes. But I am part of the chief's association in Butler County, and it just helps to to kind of just face to face.
00:08:10:12 - 00:08:18:18
Jason Young: You can talk about things we can kind of figure out if something's going on. It just it helps to connect.
00:08:20:13 - 00:08:21:27
Jason Young: It just makes it an easier.
00:08:24:18 - 00:08:26:26
Jason Young: An easier dynamic as far as
00:08:28:25 - 00:08:36:11
Jason Young: things you may not think of the you know, it's easier to send an email out, but there's nothing I can think of off the top of my head that
00:08:38:06 - 00:08:58:26
Jason Young: this group, when it comes together, we have the chiefs, we have people from the jail we have people from the 9-1-1 center and we can all just kind of just talk about whatever the current problems are, and they're always looking to help our schools whenever they can. So they might take what were some ideas of safety or just even training, just trainings they come up with,
00:08:59:08 - 00:09:04:27
Jeff Krakoff: OK, and I'm sure you interface quite a bit with local law enforcement agencies. Where
00:09:04:29 - 00:09:05:14
Jason Young: Sure.
00:09:05:16 - 00:09:06:24
Jeff Krakoff: your district is located.
00:09:07:10 - 00:09:41:10
Jason Young: I do. I mean, being a former Jackson Township police officer now, I there's two other officers now that are here. So it's a good relationship that we have back and forth because they they've worked with me for the past six and a half years and and I have with them. So as well as all the other local agencies, it helps that you're not like the new guy on the block. It's kind of the guy that they know. I mean, they trust and that goes a long way with, say, cutting through the red tape on certain things where I can just go to them and I could say, Hey, this is what's going on.
00:09:41:12 - 00:09:50:24
Jason Young: Can you help me out on this? And vice versa. They'll call me about about issues where they need information. And it just it really helps to expedite
00:09:52:28 - 00:09:54:11
Jason Young: answers to any problems.
00:09:54:21 - 00:09:56:08
Jeff Krakoff: OK. Is there any kind of
00:09:56:10 - 00:10:04:12
Jeff Krakoff: outreach, whether it's job shadowing opportunities, field trips, things like that for people to get to know more about what happens there?
00:10:05:11 - 00:10:36:14
Jason Young: One of the things that I first started doing when I came here, it was a teacher who reached out to me and she wanted me to come in and speak to our class about DUI, what happens in a DUI arrest, driving under the influence arrest, somebody gets pulled over and I started doing that going and walking through her, walking through the steps that that officers would do in her class. And then it kind of went from there to a field trip. We went up to the Butler County Government Center and the kids would see DUI court.
00:10:36:16 - 00:11:08:09
Jason Young: They would see. And we kind of limited this to just anybody over the age of 18, because the final part of the tour was we would go down and tour the jail. And one of the requirements of the jail is you have to be over the age of 18 for them to be to go through the whole process, to walk you through any hallways because you can't have a juvenile and an adult offender in the same area. Not that. I mean, they weren't putting people next to inmates, mean inmates were obviously away from them and everybody was safe.
00:11:09:04 - 00:11:39:18
Jason Young: But they're not allowed to have any visual of anybody under the age of 18, and the jail is just a policy. But we would go through them, you know, show them through the DUI process, the courts. They would meet with a judge, Typekit the judge. And it would just help spark conversation of anybody who was interested in law enforcement, which would sometimes lead to further talks about students who wanted to do ride alongs, ride alongs with you, Jackson Township, or I think Cranberry was doing.
00:11:39:20 - 00:12:13:10
Jason Young: And that was kind of on hold, of course, with COVID. But they would do ride alongs, and some of them of that was part of their senior projects was career development where they would do ride alongs and just get to see. There was one student in particular who there was a domestic that happened in Jackson and he got he came on after the domestic was over, but he got to see the arrest and he got to see the process from the arrest till they took the the person up to the Butler County prison and dropped him off there. So he had an extended ride along and he says probably one of the
00:12:14:11 - 00:12:16:09
Jason Young: Most eye-opening experiences he's had.
00:12:16:19 - 00:12:27:20
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah, that must have been something. So if there are students or people interested in that type of thing, do they just contact you? I know you're in the directory on the website.
00:12:28:02 - 00:12:54:14
Jason Young: They can contact me. They can contact. There's two school resource officers. They can also contact, but either one of the three of us, there's a school resource officer at the high school. There's one at the intermediate. You know, whether any of the three of us will be more than willing and more than happy to talk to any student who is interested in this line of work just to help them out. And you know, they can see what, what everything that goes into it.
00:12:54:21 - 00:13:10:27
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah, well, interesting stuff. I want to thank you for everything you and the rest of the officers do to keep all the students and staff safe. That was again talking with Jason Young, who's safety and security supervisor at the district. Thanks again for talking with us and
00:13:11:08 - 00:13:12:03
Jeff Krakoff: have a great day.
00:13:12:14 - 00:13:12:29
Jason Young: Thank you.
00:13:13:18 - 00:13:14:02
Jeff Krakoff: Take care.