Sweet Home Police Department applied for a grant last week to pay most of the costs of hiring a school resource officer.
The federal grant would pay $125,000 over three years if approved. The police department would pay an estimated $62,000 over those three years for the officer.
The officer most likely would be based at Sweet Home High School, visit the junior high one or two days a week and spend some time each week at the elementary schools, Police Chief Bob Burford said. The officer would handle the DARE class, which was unavailable this year because staffing levels were low.
Previously, Sweet Home received and used a three-year $75,000 grant for a community officer through the same program, Cops More.
The police department should be able to fund its share of the position without touching its ending fund balance, using money from low staffing levels the last couple of years, Chief Burford said. The School District will provide in-kind contributions, including supplies, an office and possibly other equipment.
“It would not happen right now with the school’s budget,” Chief Burford said after a city councilman asked if the district would contribute financially. “If we depend on them, it won’t happen.”
School resource officers are becoming an integral part or police and school efforts to address common problems, Chief Burford said. “Specifically, they’ve been extremely effective in addressing school violence and school harassment issues before they escalate to serious to serious criminal conduct.”
The officer serves as a resource to staff and students on topics related to safety and security. The officer also serves as a liaison between police and school officials.
Among the officers job duties would be the development and expansion of criminal prevention efforts with students; development and assistance in training in curriculum on conflict resolution and crime prevention; and identifying physical changes in the school environment that could help reduce crime around schools.
Among the most important duties, the officer would assist in developing a comprehensive district-law enforcement response plan to an armed intruder or other emergency events.
“This is something being done countywide,” Chief Burford said. If Sweet Home another 1994 shooting incident, the plan would address things like what the first officer on the scene does, where paramedics go or whether to put a school into lock down or evacuate it.
“Police response to armed intruders has done a 180-degree turnaround since Columbine,” Chief Burford said. “We need to plan ahead for these things, so everybody is working off the same set of notes.”
In general, what other department’s resource officers have found is they spend time talking to students who come to see them with questions or information. This can lead to the officer interceding in a problem before it becomes a serious or criminal problem.
The officer spends time walking around and getting to know the students.
“They’re used to seeing an officer there,” Chief Burford said. They become like other school staff, and that makes the approachable. “It’s nothing special.”