ONEONTA _ The Oneonta Police Department's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program and school-resource officer retired Tuesday, and he may not be replaced until sometime next year.
Officer Steve Havens spent part of his last day with Lt. Dennis Nayor teaching children at Riverside Elementary School about bullying.
Havens, a 22-year veteran of the department, was the D.A.R.E. officer for the Oneonta City School District for the last five years and school resource officer for the last three years.
"I'm really going to miss working with the kids," Havens, 50, said as he neared the end of his shift Tuesday. "I felt like I could really make a difference in that capacity."
Police Chief Joseph Redmond said he has discretion on if, how and when those two positions filled by Havens will be replaced.
Redmond said what Havens had been doing was important, and Redmond's preference is to have one officer fill both roles.
But the department, which has an authorized strength of 28 officers, has only 24. Four of these are recruits doing field training and who are slated to graduate from the police academy next month.
Nayor is scheduled to attend several weeks of training at the FBI Academy early next year. Two other officers will likely be away from the department for most of the year to fulfill military obligations, with one enlisting in the Army Reserves and another getting deployed overseas, Redmond said.
The priority for the department will be ensuring there are enough officers to patrol the streets and respond to emergencies, he said.
When the four recruits become full-fledged police officers early next year and are assigned to shifts, Redmond said he will then look to first fill the juvenile-aid officer position vacated by Ron Wood in August before replacing Havens.
The city held civil-service examinations last month for prospective police officers, and the results should be available in the next few weeks. The city could then hire more officers, but recruits would need to go through the police academy, Redmond said.
Redmond, Mayor John Nader and Oneonta Middle School Principal Kevin Johnson praised Havens' service.
"You've got to have the right person for it," Redmond said. "Steve had the right personality for it."
D.A.R.E. is an interactive, anti-drug abuse program taught in school. School resource officers are police officers assigned to schools who are able to assist educators in crime prevention, investigate crimes committed in schools and act a liaison between schools and law enforcement.
Nader said Havens had a great rapport with the students. He also said he respects Redmond's handling of the situation.
"I think the chief has correctly identified our priorities," Nader said.
Johnson said Havens was a model school resource officer, and he hopes the OPD will find a way to replace him.
"He was a tremendously positive police presence in (students) lives," Johnson said.
Havens said he plans to take some time off to work on his house.
"My family is here in Oneonta," he said. "I'm going to be around."
