The law enforcement officer in charge of the task force responsible for the 2014 drug raid that injured Baby Bou Bou is set to become Habersham County’s new public school safety director.
Murray Kogod, now Chief Deputy at the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, appears poised to take over the newly-created position on March 14.
Six people applied for the job, according to Habersham County School Superintendent Matthew Cooper. While the names of the candidates remain confidential, Cooper says only one was interviewed.
“We’ve only had one application of someone we know, and you know it’s like anything else, people can interview well, and they can look good on paper, but when you have a candidate you know, and you know well, that’s worth its weight in gold.”
Long-standing relationship
Kogod has a long-standing relationship with the Habersham County School System. After leaving the sheriff’s office following the Baby Bou Bou incident, he returned as a full-time sheriff’s deputy in 2016 and served as a School Resource Officer and, later, head of the SRO program.
While Cooper remains steadfast in his insistence that no one has been hired as director of school safety (a formal recommendation and vote are set for Monday night’s school board meeting on March 13), Kogod’s official employment history with the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) tells a different story.
Kogod’s official officer profile lists him as the Habersham County Board of Education (B.O.E.) Police Department Chief, effective March 14.
Now Habersham obtained a copy of Kogod’s POST profile through an open records request. POST Director of Operations Julie Bradley says his profile was updated on March 3.
In a phone interview on Friday, Cooper expressed surprise upon learning that Kogod is publicly listed as the board of education’s new chief of police.
“We haven’t taken any action on that; as I told you, we expect to have a recommendation to the board for the safety director position on Monday, so we haven’t taken any action on that at all.”
Police department of one
With the new hire, the school system will effectively relaunch its police department. Cooper downplays that aspect, saying the priority is for the person to serve as director of school safety and not as a police chief.
“Our need is for the Director of School Safety to have the full powers of a law enforcement officer, including the ability to carry a firearm,” he says. Attaching the position to a police department allows whoever gets the job to do that.
“Having a Director of School Safety who can carry a firearm provides additional security for our Central Office and for our schools,” Cooper says.
While most people in the community thought the school police department was disbanded years ago, Cooper says that’s not the case. Although it stopped operating, the department still exists on paper at POST, and it will resume operations under its old Originating Agency Identifier (ORI) number.
“The school system police department will have only one employee after the Director of School Safety is hired. The safety director will be that employee,” Cooper says.
He adds, “At this time, there are no plans to increase the size of the school system’s police department.”
The safety director will work from the school board’s central office but is expected to spend “significant time” in the schools. Sheriff’s office SROs will still provide security and traffic control and will continue to answer to Terrell. The safety director will work closely with the SROs.
For eight years, Adam Bagwell has served as the school system’s safety coordinator. The middle school principal will no longer fill that role once a director is hired.
Asked what prompted the change, Cooper says, “What’s changed is we’re ready for a full-time safety director, and we have the chance to bring someone on who is very qualified.”
‘Absolutely absurd’
While no one disputes the importance of school safety, some question this change. For months, speculation has swirled that the job was created specifically for Kogod.
“This is Cooper setting up people that he grants favors to before he retires,” says one source close to the school system who asked not to be identified.
“I feel it is absolutely absurd,” says a local law enforcement official. “If we create a school police department, we have expenses – cars, ammo, training, retirement, several thousand dollars per employee.”
Despite assurances that there are no plans “at this time” to expand the department beyond one officer, some worry this is the first step to building a school police department ahead of Terrell’s departure in 2024.
Cooper takes issue with anyone viewing this move negatively and maintains he wants this to be “a positive” for the school system.
“I can absolutely see someone speculating that that’s what’s really going on and that’s the ultimate goal, but I will tell you that’s not the goal, and what we hope can be accomplished is that we can continue to have a strong relationship with the sheriff’s office when there is a new sheriff,” he says.
Scrutiny
As Kogod prepares to move away from his role as chief deputy, he does so under scrutiny.
Since October 21, 2021, when Sheriff Terrell placed him second in command in charge of day-to-day operations, the sheriff’s office has experienced heavy turnover. Under Kogod’s command, 36 employees have left voluntarily, including four SROs.
Last fall, Sheriff Terrell blamed poor employee retention on low pay. He convinced county commissioners to give his deputies raises. However, records obtained from the Habersham County Human Resources Department indicate that management, not pay, drove away employees.
Canvassing two dozen former sheriff’s office employees, HR officials noted that the majority of them said pay had “nothing” to do with their decision to leave. Most cited “management” as their primary reason for resigning.
There are also questions about Kogod operating a nonprofit from the sheriff’s office. The Georgia Alliance of School Resource Officers and Educators (G.A.S.R.O.E.) uses sheriff’s office personnel and resources, although Kogod describes it as a “separate and distinct private, non-profit charitable organization.”
“There is no separate ‘office’ designated for GASROE, and it is really nothing more than a binder on a shelf,” Kogod told Now, Habersham, in an email last fall. “The fact that the sheriff’s office address is listed as the organization’s service address costs the county nothing.”
Sheriff’s office employees dispute that, saying they’ve been required to do work for the organization outside of their normal duties.
County officials, including attorney Donnie Hunt, have been tight-lipped as to whether such an arrangement is legal. Kogod, a licensed attorney, insists that it is. He incorporated the organization in 2020 and continues to serve as its president. Until recently, Terrell served as G.A.S.R.O.E.’s CEO.
This isn’t the first time Kogod has incorporated a nonprofit using a public office.
While serving as chief deputy in Barrow County, he incorporated the Barrow County Methamphetamine Task Force at the sheriff’s office address, state records show. Disgraced former Barrow County District Attorney Tim Madison was the Chief Executive Officer.
While some question the propriety of running private entities from public offices, Cooper says he would consider allowing it.
“It depends if being involved in something like that took away from the work that person was doing here in the school system. If that work enhanced the work they’re doing in the school system and enhanced relationships throughout the state and region, as long as I saw a benefit to our school system, I would allow it, yes.”
In the meantime, POST has been asked to investigate whether the premature change to Kogod’s work profile, listing him in a job he does not currently hold, is a violation of policy. Sources say an investigator is looking into the matter.
