Tumwater committee delays SRO interlocal agreement after members request formal reporting requirements

The Tumwater Public Health & Safety Committee on July 8, 2025 postponed action on an updated interlocal agreement with the Tumwater School District for the School Resource Officer (SRO) program after council members asked staff to add explicit reporting requirements and to reference the applicable state statute.

Committee members said they want the contract to show what data the district and police track so the council can better inform the public about the program’s work and outcomes.

Chief Mason, representing the Tumwater Police Department, presented the updated interlocal agreement and said the document is largely unchanged from the version the committee saw three years ago, with the main edits limited to updated wage and benefits language. "This is the updated contract between the Tumwater, the city of Tumwater and the Tumwater School District," Chief Mason said. He described the SRO program as a "joint partnership with the school district for almost 15 years." Chief Mason told the committee that one SRO is funded by the police department and a second SRO, added in 2017 at the district’s request, is funded by the school district for salary and benefits.

Councilmember Leila Dahlhoff told the committee she wants explicit reporting requirements added to the interlocal agreement so the city receives the datasets the schools compile under state law. "I would like reporting requirements included into this contract," Dahlhoff said. When Chief Mason noted that "the schools are required to compile specific datasets by RCW," Dahlhoff asked that the contract cite that RCW and require the school district and police to provide the tracked elements to the city.

Another committee member asked about student-focused outcomes such as improved attendance, fewer referrals and decreased suspensions, saying those measures would help show benefits to students beyond crime prevention. "I'm not seeing anything ... about improved benefits to the students that are outcomes of having the SROs there," the member said, adding that metrics on attendance and suspension would be useful to show how SROs support student success.

Chief Mason said some of those measures are operational rather than contractual and that the department does not participate in school discipline. "Our goal is to get kids across the stage at Saint Martin's or wherever they graduate at the end of their high school careers," he said, and he agreed to research how student-outcome metrics might be presented to the committee.

Committee members instructed staff to draft contract language that (1) cites the RCW referenced by the chief, (2) specifies the types of incident and program data to be tracked, and (3) establishes that those reports be provided to the city. Chair Peter Agabi summarized the direction and asked that the revised interlocal agreement come back to the Public Health & Safety Committee for review before the matter goes to the full Tumwater City Council for consideration. Chief Mason said he had the direction he needed.

The committee did not take a final vote on the interlocal agreement at the July 8 meeting. Staff indicated they will prepare revised contract language and return the item to the committee for further review and subsequent consideration by the full council.