The following letter has been received for publication in The Newtown Bee:

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Security is the feeling of being safe and welcome as a part of your community, and every resident of town has the right to feel this way.

Security can come from low crime, financial stability, and/or the acceptance of your own views or culture by others.

During our time on the Board of Education, Michelle Embree Ku and I each spent time as members of the District Security and Safety Committee. This is not a Board of Education subcommittee, but rather a collaborative effort involving many stakeholders from across the town including (but not limited to) the First Selectman, Newtown Police Department, representatives from both public and private schools, and the Emergency Communications Center.

The work of this committee was an important piece to moving forward after 12/14 and strengthening the feeling of security across the town.

As First Selectman, I look forward to continuing to actively participate in collaborative efforts like the DSSC. In addition, I believe the town needs to perform a review of the needs of Newtown’s first responders to ensure they have the necessary resources to respond to the uptick in incidents of hate crimes, auto accidents and medical emergencies.

Part of that will require consideration of whether our various departments are structured in a way that allows them to continue to serve all of Newtown effectively. With 63 square miles of town to cover and ever-increasing infrastructure, our personnel can be stretched thin by the increasing demands of the job. I am committed to doing this analysis to ensure that Newtown’s first responders can continue to maintain a high level of service.

All residents in Newtown deserve to feel a sense of security, and that is something that I want to help bring to them starting this November!

Dan Cruson

Newtown