This year, Albemarle County is ramping up its security. Students are already familiar with metal detectors and SMARTPass, but these technologies are only the most quotidian of new safety measures. One such measure is a return to pre-COVID policy: School Resource Officers.
Officer Raymond Lilly is one of four SROs in Albemarle County, each serving one high school and its feeder middle and elementary schools, with one general ACPS SRO. SROs act as a link between the police department and schools, working to “assist in providing safe and positive school environments with a law enforcement presence,” according to the ACPS Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
As a police officer, Lilly has undergone extensive training to become an SRO on top of police training, so he is equipped with everything a normal police officer is—guns, handcuffs, pepper spray…