Monroe One BOCES partners with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office to make a School Resource Officer (SRO) available to our Monroe One family. Deputy Ed Cerone passed the baton to Deputy Jon Engelbrecht toward the end of the 2023-24 school year, making 2024-25 Deputy Jon’s first full school year with us!
SROs add an extra layer of security, but they’re primarily in schools to help foster a positive environment where everyone feels supported. You’ll see Deputy Jon in our schools and programs getting to know our students and staff, and he agreed to meet for a quick Q&A!
Q: Are you from the area?
A: I live on the other side of the county. This is quite a commute for me, but my dad did this drive. He worked in Fairport for 30 something years, and he did it every day.
Q: What do you like to do outside of work?
A: I really enjoy camping. I like hiking. Fishing is a big one for me. Around the house, I like to garden. I do enjoy cooking. I was a cook in the army for seven years.
Q: How did you get into law enforcement?
A: Well, when I first got out of the Army, back in 2010, I took a couple of tests. One of them was the state trooper test, but I was not able to continue the process because I have tattoos that are visible within my uniform, and the state troopers don't allow that. So, I took another Monroe County Jail test a few years later, but it ended up that a lot of the testing was on the day I was getting married, so that didn't work. Then a few years later, my wife saw that MCSO was hiring, and I was 33 and approaching the time when I wouldn't be able to take it anymore. So, she's like, “go take it. I know you've been wanting to do this.” At the time I was at an office job that I didn’t like. I went and took the test, and I got accepted into the academy.
Q: Aside from being our SRO, do you have other responsibilities within the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office?
A: Yeah. So, the sheriff's department has an underwater search and recovery team. I just got onto that little over six months ago. I have been recreationally diving since 2010 and I really enjoy it. It’s just a whole different world underwater. As long as you do everything safely, it's a lot of fun.
I’m also on the Sheriff’s Rescue Task Force. I'm an instructor for that. Our team works together with the fire department to create a safe zone for everyone to act quickly in a crisis and save lives.
I also have crisis intervention training. It allows you to kind of just look at things a little bit differently, you know, empathize a little bit more, and be able to just think outside the box and have other ways to talk to people and understand that they might be coming from a different place than where you are. It helps you deal with situations in a safer, calmer manner.
Q: What led you to Monroe One?
A: I knew becoming an SRO was going to be a good fit for my family life immediately. Then last school year I started becoming part of the Monroe One community and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m working on a couple of initiatives to connect with students right now. (Deputy Jon went into detail about the initiatives, but we don’t want to ruin the surprise just yet!)
Q: What are you most excited about this school year?
A: This will be the first school year that I've been here from the beginning, so I am keeping my expectations open as I’m still learning. I'm just excited for the school year to start and to see the new faces, meet the new staff, and just kind of get to know how everything works.
