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Peoria council approves one-year extension of school resource officer intergovernmental agreement
Summary
The Peoria City Council voted 7-0 to extend for one year its intergovernmental agreement with Peoria Unified School District to continue the city nd police department—unded school resource officer and school liaison officer programs while the district seeks grant funding.
The Peoria City Council on June 17 approved a one-year extension of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Peoria Unified School District to continue the city nd police-run school resource officer (SRO) and school liaison officer (SLO) programs.
Lieutenant Jason Tarrant, the Peoria Police Department—mployee who leads the SRO program, told the council the extension will allow the district time to pursue grant funding that could supplement or change cost-sharing arrangements and training plans.
The city and district said the SRO and SLO programs prioritize prevention, relationship building and preparedness. Tarrant said Peoria has four SROs assigned full time to the district—our high schools and a team of SLOs who rotate through elementary schools and handle traffic, crisis response and safety planning.
The SRO/SLO programs include joint training with school staff on topics such as trauma-informed response, de-escalation and youth mental-health awareness. Tarrant also described a recent development in which a Peoria SRO earned a National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) instructor certification, enabling the department to run its own SRO training locally.
Tarrant said the one-year extension avoids redoing the entire IGA if the district is awarded grant funding and allows staff to pursue cooperative professional development and continued camera access through the city real-time crime center used for rapid incident response training.
Council member Matt Bullock gave a personal testimonial about his earlier experience supporting SRO funding and described SROs—eyond enforcement roles s mentors, instructors and daily safety observers who often identify physical-security needs to guide spending.
Mayor Jason Beck made a motion to approve the agenda item; the council voted 7-0 to adopt the extension.
The agreement extension is administrative: it keeps the existing SRO/SLO structure in place for the coming school year and preserves options for the district and city to renegotiate funding and training if external grants are secured.
Council and police officials framed the program as a long-term partnership emphasizing student safety, family engagement and cross-jurisdictional coordination (including work with Glendale Police Department). They said the extension will also support continuing work on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) reviews and other safety-focused measures.
The city will continue to seek annual feedback from each campus about officer presence and performance so the department can measure impact and adjust deployment or training.
No amendment to program structure or staffing was adopted as part of this vote; the council approved only the one-year IGA extension.
