The Barrington Police Department is looking to fill a number of recent vacancies, including the school resource officer job.

Officer Corey Resendes had been working as the SRO for Barrington Public Schools since the start of the school year, but he recently left the department for a job in a neighboring community. 

“Corey Resendes unfortunately took a job offer with the East Providence Police,” said Barrington Police Chief Michael Correia during an interview on Monday morning. 

“It’s a big loss. He’s a good, young police officer.”

Chief Correia said Resendes had strong ties with East Providence — he grew up in EP and graduated from East Providence High School. 

The chief said the department will rely on a handful of other officers to handle the SRO duties until a full-time replacement is named. 

“Ultimately I recognize… we have to have a presence at the high school and the middle school. It’s a need,” Chief Correia said. 

The chief said the Barrington Police Department is actively working to fill the SRO job opening and a few other vacancies. Longtime BPD officer Tim Harrington recently retired, stepping down as captain. Barrington Police also lost Officer Mark Haddigan, who recently took a job with the Glocester (RI) Police Department. 

“Manpower is always an issue,” said Chief Correia, “but we have a job to do.”

Chief Correia said the department is running advertisements on the radio in an effort to gain some lateral transfers, which are officers who currently work in different police departments.  

“That’s where the lateral process becomes pretty valuable,” Chief Correia said. “Barrington took in two (officers through lateral transfers) earlier this year: A 20-plus year veteran from Pawtucket and a young officer from Foster.”

The chief said Barrington Police will also be graduating a candidate from the academy soon.

“Kelsey Maynard. She’s a good candidate,” he said. “We’re going to add a second female to the department, which is exciting.”

Barrington Police is also sending two more recruits to the next academy that will begin in a few weeks. Chief Correia said one of the candidates is from Bristol and the other is from Cranston. The academy is a 20-week process and graduates will spend the 12 weeks following that completing an in-house training program for BPD.