News

Many communities have uniformed officers in school
The Laramie Boomerang Online - October 2007

While it appears that changes are coming for the community officer/high-risk youth program in the Albany County schools, Laramie Chief of Police Bob Deutsch said that he wants to maintain a presence in the schools.

Laramie is not alone in wanting a presence in the school system. The majority of southern and central communities in the state have some type of police presence in the schools and more communities continue to seek school officer programs. While districts are modifying the programs to meet their specific needs, the majority of schools are using a school resource officer program.

Casper

According to Gayle Schnorenberg of the Natrona County School District Safe Schools Office, the district has two school response officers who are certified Casper Police Department officers. The district pays a portion of the officers’ salaries as well as furnishing cell phones for them, she said. One officer is assigned to schools on the west side of Casper and the other officer is assigned to the east side. The program has been in place for eight years.

The officers are dedicated to the schools and do not go out on routine patrol calls, Schnorenberg said. The officers will respond to a school when paged, but also make routine walk-throughs and occasionally have lunch at one of the schools. The officers are in uniform and do carry their regular firearms.

Schnorenberg said that they also have campus supervisors in each school who handle enforcement of district policy and safety issues. They are trained in a student advocacy model and work to help students make right choices in life, she said.

The district also has administrative managers at the high school and junior high who work with the campus supervisors and principals regarding discipline and interaction with parents, she said.

The school response officers handle situations dealing with violations of local, state and federal law, she said.

“They do have a presence and they are in the schools and, they, too, work with kids in a proactive manner,” Schnorenberg said.

School resource officers

Many other schools in the state have school resource officer programs, which utilize the local law enforcement officers in the respective communities. Laramie City Attorney Peggy Trent said at Tuesday night’s council meeting that once the current Laramie program was revamped it would likely be a school resource officer program.

Sweetwater

According to Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Human Resources Director Mike Lopiccolo, the Rock Springs Police Department “lends” the district three uniformed officers. There is one officer at the high school and one at the junior high, The third officer splits his time at each of the elementary schools.

Lopiccolo said the officers handle climate control in the schools, Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) and other education.

Green River, Sweetwater County School District No. 2, also has two school resource officers who are on-duty officers of the Green River Police Department, according to superintendent Craig Sorensen. One officer is assigned to the high school and the other officer is at the middle school and alternative school. The two officers also spend time at the elementary schools as needed, he said. The district has a separate D.A.R.E. officer.

“These are on-duty officers located in the schools. We have offices for them and the police cars are parked at school,” Sorensen said.

Sorensen said that he finds the officers a valuable asset.

The school resource officer program is funded jointly by the city of Green River and the school district, he said.

Rawlins

The Rawlins Police Department also has a school resource officer program. According to its Web site, rawlinspd.com, the program started in 2004. According to the Web site, “The SRO program puts a uniformed officer in the schools to work with administrators to help reduce the level of juvenile delinquency in the community. This program also provides positive contacts with law enforcement by putting the officer closer to the students.”

The SRO is also in the schools to help ensure the security and safety of the students, according to the Web site.

Cheyenne

The Cheyenne Police Department assigns seven school resource officers to the high schools and junior high schools, along with a D.A.R.E. officer, according to Laramie County School District Assistant Superintendent of Support Operations Dave Bartlett. Each officer is assigned a grade school and responds if needed. The program is funded jointly by the city and the school district. The program has been in place for about 10 years.

Bartlett, who also served the district as an elementary school principal, said the officers at the elementary level serve as a coaches or counselors to the students and help them make good choices. At the junior high and high school levels, the presence is more on the law enforcement side, he said. The officers make a point of making a connection with the kids to getting to know them. If an officer makes contact with a student regarding a specific incident, the parents are contacted, Bartlett said.

Douglas

Douglas High School Resource Officer Rick Dutcher has been a school resource officer for 10 years, serving nine years in Cody. He said that the program works well and the students respond to the program, which seems to be why it has gained popularity in Wyoming.

Dutcher said that he and the second SRO assigned to the middle school are always in uniform, carrying all equipment including firearms.

“It’s not a barrier with the students,” he said.

He said that in Cody when he first started, he wore a coat and tie rather than a uniform. After the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, the administration and he agreed that he would start wearing a uniform. He said having the uniform and equipment makes it easier to respond to incidents.

“We help the kids with anything they need,” Dutcher said, including social work issues.

The school resource program has “really gained in popularity. It’s expensive, but that has not been a hindrance in Wyoming,” Dutcher said.

He said the Douglas program is a joint financial effort between the city and the school district.

Lovell

It’s not just larger school districts and communities that are assigning officers to the schools. Lovell Chief of Police Nick Lewis said Lovell has had a school resource officer for five years. The program was funded by a grant for the first three years but has been fully funded by the town (25 percent) and the school district (75 percent) the past two years.

“The position is fantastic,” he said, adding that the officer handles a lot of calls that patrol officers were having to handle, including truancy. He said the officer handles a lot of education inside the school such as bicycle safety, pedestrian safety and Internet safety. He said the school administrators like having a marked car and a uniformed officer in the schools. He added that Lovell worked with the district to decide if the officer would wear a uniform or plain clothes and it was decided that they wanted the officer to be highly visible. He said that on Friday’s the officer may wear a polo shirt and slacks but still carries a firearm.

Lewis said the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office is working to obtain funding to provide officers in the other schools in the county.

“Sometimes these programs are fads, but this is not that type of program. Agencies see the value and are willing to dig in and fund the program,” Lewis said.

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