School Resource Officer William “Spike” Donahue retired on Monday, April 1.

Chief John J. Bryfonski announces that a 32-year veteran of the Bedford Police Department is retiring. Officer Donahue was the first SRO assigned to the Bedford Schools, where he has spent the last 15 of his 32 years of service with the Bedford Police Department. He also taught the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program for many years at Bedford Schools, and was the first officer assigned to the Mountain Bicycle Patrol Unit.

As an SRO, Officer Donahue is known by and affectionately refereed to as “Spike” by students, staff and colleagues at Bedford schools.

“Spike, as he’s known to kids and school officials, has been a tremendous asset to everyone he’s served,” Chief Bryfonski said. “He really is what a school resource officer is supposed to be: he knows the families, knows the kids and knows the community.”

Throughout his career, Officer Donahue has appreciated the support he’s felt from the community, school district and police department.

“I was always developing relationships with these kids from the time they were in elementary school all the way through 12th grade, so I’ve watched a lot of them grow up, go on to various careers and become the young adults they are,” Officer Donahue said. “It has been a great, fascinating and rewarding process. The relationship building has been the most important thing, besides school safety, that I did as an SRO.”

Field Training Officer Eli J. Krause, an experienced 10-year veteran of the Bedford Police Department, will serve as the new SRO at Bedford Public Schools after Officer Donahue retires.

Officer Krause was previously assigned to the Patrol Operations Division, where his duties included both sector patrol as well as training new police officers.