Both candidates in Hoover’s mayoral race, incumbent Frank Brocato and challenger Nick Derzis, have often voiced support for Hoover City Schools and discussed their roles in providing school resource officers. On Sunday, a group of past presidents of the National Association of School Resource Officers issued a statement endorsing Derzis, clarifying his role in how Hoover’s program began and its role in setting a national standard.
"Chief Nick Derzis was a pioneer in the field of school safety prior to joining NASRO's board in 2006. Under his tutelage, Hoover's robust and award-winning school resource officer program was established in 1996 with the first appointment of an SRO to Hoover High School. He was at the forefront of expanding that program in 1999 after the Columbine massacre to provide armed law enforcement in Hoover's secondary schools," the association stated.
The endorsement explained further, "In 2013, Chief Nick Derzis again served as a trailblazer in the field of school safety with the push for school resource officers in each of Hoover's elementary schools after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Chief Nick Derzis has always served as a champion for protecting our community's most precious resource - its children - both as Hoover's police chief and as an active and engaged board member for our organization for almost 20 years."
According to their release, "The National Association of School Resource Officers, or NASRO, was founded in 1991 under the premise of serving as the gold standard for school-based law enforcement training. Since then, the organization has trained over 100,000 school resource officers and school safety stakeholders across the country and in various parts of the world. NASRO serves as the authority on best practices for school-based policing and actively collaborates with groups such as the United States Department of Justice and Homeland Security to shape policy and recommendations to help keep students and school campuses safe."
The endorsement closed, "Chief Derzis will make an incredible mayor for the city of Hoover. He has more than 25 years of proven leadership and deep roots within a community he has dedicated his life to protecting. We are proud to endorse Chief Nick Derzis as Hoover's next mayor."
The election will be held on August 26.
*Editors note: This story was corrected to identify that it was the past presidents of the National Association of School Resource Officers who made the endorsement.
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