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School police outlines training, radio upgrades and possible taser, body-cam policies
Summary
Chief KZ told the El Rancho Unified board the district's school police is expanding training and coordination with the county sheriff and is exploring equipment and communications upgrades, including high-frequency encrypted radios and policies for tasers and body cameras.
Chief KZ, the district's school police chief, told the board the department currently staffs three sworn school police officers and one chief, plus non-sworn senior safety officers and part-time school safety officers. He described their duties — from investigations to emergency response and community outreach — and outlined state training requirements such as campus law enforcement instruction and the 40-hour block for juvenile law interactions.
"We are charged with crime prevention, emergency response and student safety," Chief KZ said, and noted the department's monthly safety meetings with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, including joint threat assessment and shared intelligence.
The chief described several near-term projects: upgrading the Emergency Operations Center radio system to an encrypted, interoperable platform; producing a school police policy and procedures manual; certifying school safety officers in Crisis Prevention Intervention and first-aid/CPR; and developing improved emergency drills and site-level communications. He also said the department has discussed adding nonlethal tools such as tasers and would pair any program with body-worn cameras and liability review.
Trustees pressed for specifics on communications redundancies and whether a districtwide, single alert platform (such as Raptor or other systems) has been contracted. Chief KZ and district staff said the district has new PA systems and some site radios and will research integrated options while retaining paper and runner backups for outages.
Board members and the chief discussed staffing and resources. Chief KZ said the department is "in a good spot" but added that continued training and equipment would improve preparedness; he said the district could pursue POST agency certification for the police unit to formalize hiring and training standards.
The presentation concluded with trustees offering support for additional training and for staff to return with cost estimates and policy drafts for tools such as tasers and body cameras.
The board extended the meeting to continue discussion; no final policy decision on tasers or body cameras was made at this session.
