ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Retired Lynn Police Officer Bob Ferrari carries personal items from his office.
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — Retired police Officer Bob Ferrari said his proudest achievement in a 31-year career is using technology to protect Lynn’s public schools.
“We are prepared as we can be,” he said.
The 59-year-old West Lynn native held the title of school security and emergency planning liaison for the last decade. Working with school administrators, principals and fellow law enforcement professionals, Ferrari expanded the school system’s security camera network from 60 to 800 cameras. He instituted secure door systems for schools and classrooms and a school employee and visitor identification system.
“The real value of cameras is forensic,” he said. “We can go back and have a video of what happened and what didn’t happen.”
School security improvements coupled with training address school security concerns ranging from irate parents causing disturbances on school grounds to active shooter scenarios. Ferrari said school employees are trained to secure classrooms and police practice rapid responses to school shooting scenarios.
Ferrari was one of eight police officers assigned to schools in 2003 until federal money for school resource officers disappeared four years later. Former School Superintendent Nicholas Kostan stressed the need for a police officer in the schools and Ferrari became the police department’s school liaison.
“There was no blueprint for the job,” Ferrari said. “I was afforded a unique opportunity.”
He implemented security procedures throughout 28 school buildings beginning with making school doors secure. Schools were equipped with door intercoms even as the security camera system expanded throughout the school system.
With the main doors to schools secure, Ferrari focused on classroom security with teacher training and equipping classroom doors with locks. He said these measures and visitor check-in procedures reduced irate parent problems.
“We’ve done a real good job buttoning that up,” Ferrari said.
School Superintendent Catherine Latham said Ferrari played a leading role in bringing modern security technology to Lynn schools and ensuring officers and school employees were trained.
“Our security system is his vision,” she said.
The son of Robert and Martha Ferrari and the oldest of seven children, Ferrari grew up on Myrtle Street. He was one of several neighborhood boys, including his brother, Timothy, who idolized retired Police Sgt. Robert Condon who lived in the neighborhood and provided a personal example of community police work.
“He was our guy,” Ferrari said.
His first assignment as a young officer put Ferrari in McDonough Square at a time when the crack cocaine epidemic raged in the 1980s and early 1990s. Ferrari said crack’s human toll parallels today’s opioid death rate.
“It’s good people in bad situations making horrible decisions,” he said.
Ferrari and his wife, Debra, have three daughters, Candice, Courtney and Casey. His first retirement priority is to spend more time with his two granddaughters, Lyla, 5, and Emmy, 1. He capped off his career in April with the opening of the new Marshall Middle School where security, as well as education, is a top priority. Marshall’s security features include a 100-camera system.
“The school is unbelievably secure,” he said.
Ferrari’s successor is 20-year Police Department veteran Oren Wright.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].
