Mayor’s Minute By Stewart Welch III - September 2023

Mountain Brook has one of the best police forces in the state.

One of the highest priorities for Mountain Brook Schools is safety for our students, teachers and staff. Several years ago, the city council made the financial commitment to help fund having a police officer in every school, every day. Our school resource officers are so much more than police officers protecting our schools. 

MBPD Chief, Jaye Loggins, had this to say on June 5: 

“The Mountain Brook Police Department School Resource Officers received the award for Best SRO Team for the 2022-23 school year at the 24th Annual Safe Schools Conference, presented by The Alabama Association of School Resource Officers. 

“MBPD has an officer assigned to each of the six Mountain Brook schools and will be adding a seventh officer this fall. Those receiving the award were: Cpl. Glen White, Officer Tommy Tanner, Officer Lance Ziska, Officer Richard Knecht, Officer Ro Burrow and Officer Daphne Horton.  

“The men and women who serve as SROs have the unique opportunity of serving as ambassadors of the police department to the next generation. They set the tone for future relationships between the police and the community.  Not only are our SROs protecting the kids and staff at the schools, but they are also serving as the faces and voices of the police department to the kids.

“All of the schools and administrators love their SROs. Best of all, the kids love the SRO at their school. As an administrator and chief of police, I could not ask for a better group of people. I am not at all surprised that this team won the award.  

“I can attest to their popularity among the students. I was recently at a school event where these officers were introduced, and each received loud applause and screams from fans typically reserved for rock stars.”

Recently, I attended a beautiful ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of one of our fallen police officers, Sergeant Freddie Harp, who died from a gunshot wound after making a traffic stop on Aug. 6, 1973. The ceremony was a sober reminder of the ultimate sacrifice made by one of our officers and the risks each of our officers faces every day.

Our Mountain Brook Schools continue to shine and have been listed among the state’s highest-ranking schools (scores) in math, science and English Language Arts. Guess which school was ranked number one in the state in all three categories? If you guessed Mountain Brook, you get a gold star! 

Success does not just happen, it grows out of intentional efforts of all involved including our school board, Superintendent Barlow, school administrators, teachers, parent-teacher organization members and parents. 

Congratulations and thanks to each of you for your efforts to make Mountain Brook Schools the best in the state and one of the very top school systems in America.