Less than 24 hours after the Habersham County Board of Education voted to appoint Habersham Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Murray Kogod as the Director of School Safety, photos surfaced online of the school system’s new police car.
Helton Graphics of Gainesville Tuesday posted photos of the vehicle on social media. The car, a 2015 Dodge Charger, was wrapped to read “Habersham County Schools Police.” It has the school system’s motto “Success for all students” and the logo of Kogod’s private nonprofit, G.A.S.R.O.E. on the rear driver’s side.
In a lengthy speech before the board of education Monday night, school superintendent Matthew Cooper downplayed the fact that, with Kogod’s hiring, the school system is revitalizing its police department. He emphasized the board was hiring a ‘safety director,’ a point he pressed in an interview Friday with Now Habersham.
“We do not want the focus to be on ‘chief of police’ – that’s not why we’re creating this position to have a chief of police – but we’ve researched it enough that if we want our safety director to carry a firearm, the best thing is to hire someone who has law enforcement training,” he told Now Habersham. “We need to be careful the emphasis is on the title of school safety.”
The new school police department vehicle has a county government tag on it. It’s unclear how and when the vehicle was purchased.
Kogod’s hiring was a foregone conclusion. On March 3, his official POST officer profile was updated, naming him Habersham County B.O.E. Police Chief, ten days before the school board voted.
Five other people applied for the job. None of them were interviewed, according to Cooper.
