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GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Kenneth Wagner, who once served as a lieutenant with the Clay County Sheriff Office, was selected as the new Chief of Police for the school district’s police department, county superintendent Addison Davis said Tuesday.
A 4-1 vote earlier this month allowed the school board to approve the formation of a school district police department. Previously, Wagner led the School Resource Officer program within the district for CCSO.
“This individual before me [Wagner] comes with over 20 years of experience in law enforcement with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office,” Davis said. “This individual, for the last seven or eight years, has driven the work with the Clay County district SRO programs, held multiple positions in law enforcement from patrol, to sergeant, to lieutenant, to internal affairs, to training unit commander, mobile field force commander and also as a detective.”
Davis said Wagner brings more than 1,400 hours of training in law enforcement that ranges from homicide to FEMA incident command, crisis intervention, internal affairs, emergency response, mental health first aid and more.
After the introduction, Wagner took to the podium to explain his passion for safety within Clay County schools and his plans to ensure that safety.
“I had kids that graduated from Clay district schools...so it’s very important to me that the safety and security of each of our students is well-balanced and paramount,” Wagner said. “I am committed to sustaining the lasting partnerships with the Green Cove Springs Police Department, the Orange Park Police Department, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the FBI and the State Attorney’s Office.
“All of us have to collaborate and service the community to maintain the security of our kids,” Wagner said.
As Chief of Police, Wagner outlined his next steps now that he’s secured the position. The first step, naturally, is to create the police department. After that, the district will need to purchase necessary equipment such as cars, uniforms and utility belts. After that, he and his staff will develop what Wagner called rigorous training with the objective to better serve Clay County students and the greater community.
During all of this, the department will continue its relationship with municipality police departments and begin recruitment to fill the ranks of the school’s department.
While Wagner will serve as the Chief of Police, the school district police department will be receiving help from former county sheriff Rick Beseler who will serve the department in an advisory role.
“Mr. Rick Beseler was a sheriff for 12 years in Clay County and recently had a retirement, but we had to bring him back because he can dedicate his time and energy to creating great consistencies between all agencies and building beautiful relationships.”
Davis said Beseler has over 42 years of law enforcement experience and will use that experience to guide the school district’s police department forward as it comes into fruition.
“I think that I can bring the assistance of a lot of resources to this new agency as they stand it up,” Beseler said. “We’ve got some challenges ahead of us, there’s no doubt, but nothing good is ever easy, but I believe that with the staff that we’ve got, and the backup we’ve got here, we’re going to be able to create a dedicated law enforcement agency.”
Beseler said when he was the sheriff, school wasn’t the primary focus of school resource officers. This is because if something else happened in the area, they were sometimes required to leave the school to attend to that.
“Having a dedicated police force that’s here all the time, I believe makes our students safer,” Beseler said. “If I were still the sheriff, I would be very supportive of this new endeavor and I believe it’s going to be something positive for all of our children and I’m looking forward to being a part of it.”