The Plum Borough School District is proud to introduce Officer Dwight Locke and Officer James Horwatt as the newest members of the Plum Borough School District Police Department. Officers Locke and Horwatt began training in the District on March 12, 2019. Their first official day in their assigned buildings was March 18, 2019.
Officer Locke retired after a twenty five year career as a Trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police. He served the last nine years as a security officer at Plum High School, which will be an enormous asset to the Plum Borough School District. Officer Locke will be attending School Resource Officer (SRO) training in June. He is currently assigned to Center Elementary School.
Officer Horwatt retired as a Detective/Sergeant after serving twenty seven years with the New Kensington Police Department. After retiring, he began working as a Gateway School District Police Officer. He left that position to come to the Plum Borough School District Police Department. Officer Horwatt brings with him all of his school based police training as well as experience in dealing with students and staff. He will be attending School Resource Officer (SRO) training in June. Officer Horwatt is currently assigned to Holiday Park Elementary School.
The District is currently in the process of onboarding one more officer which will accomplish our goal of each building having a dedicated Plum School District Officer in that building every day. This will ensure district wide coverage and allow those officers to develop respectful, trusting relationships with the students, families and the staff of their building(s).
The Plum Borough School District Police Department’s primary focus is keeping our schools safe. We also plan on developing mentoring programs and teaching safety awareness classes to our students. We will strive to be positive role models and work to insure that we are fair, compassionate and always student centered in all we do.
Again, a warm and Plum proud welcome to Officers Dwight Locke and James Horwatt.
Timothy A. Hanna
Supervisor, Plum School District Police Department
For the official release, please click here!