National school resource officer group names award after Hoover Chief Nick Derzis
The National Association of School Resource Officers has named its Safe Schools Leadership Award after Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis.
The award recognizes individuals for their contributions and dedication to a school resource officer program and the many children, parents and faculty members of their communities and schools.
Mo Canady, the former head of the Hoover Police Department’s school resource officer program who now is executive director for the national association, said NASRO’s board chose to name its leadership award after Derzis because of his dedication to providing school-based policing programs both in Hoover and around the world.
Derzis was Hoover’s assistant police chief when NASRO recognized Hoover’s school resource officer program as a model program in 2003, and he was named chief in 2005. He has served on NASRO’s board of directors since 2006.
“By being on the NASRO board, the model he helped establish in Hoover has become the standard nationally and really around the world,” Canady said.
This is only the fourth time NASRO has named one of its awards after an individual in the organization’s 27-year history, Canady said.
Derzis was honored with the naming of the award at NASRO’s annual School Safety Conference in Washington, D.C. last week. The organization then promptly named Derzis as one of four people to win the award this year.
Others were:
- Terrence Sheridan, chief of the Baltimore County Police Department in Maryland, who implemented the first school resource officer program in the Baltimore/Washington region.
- Vicki Almond, a member of the Baltimore County Council in Towson, Maryland, who advocated for her county’s school resource officer program both as a community volunteer and activist and as an elected official.
- Dallas Dance, the former superintendent for Baltimore County Public Schools, who led sweeping improvements in school safety focused on incident prevention.