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School district will reduce SROs from five to four under interlocal agreement; residents raise data concerns
Summary
Public commenters and council questioned a proposed interlocal agreement that reduces school resource officers from five to four. Police staff said the district pays about 73.3% of the officer salary and that the department can staff four SROs; residents asked about data collection and what happens to recorded student incident data.
During public comment, Paul McDaniel and others raised concerns about a school-district decision to reduce the number of school resource officers (SROs) the district will fund under the proposed interlocal agreement. McDaniel called a $75,000 reduction "not much" relative to safety and emphasized SROs' role in community programs such as LINC that support at-risk youth.
A police representative explained the operational impact and financing: "They pay for, 73.3% of the officer salary and benefit, to have officers there," the officer said, and noted the department has historically staffed four or five SROs and can operate with four for the coming school year while using a rover assignment to cover absences.
Separately, Anna Patrick raised questions about the contract's data-collection provisions, noting that the draft calls for monthly submission of incident reports including arrests, referrals for prosecution, offense type, race, gender and whether a student has an IEP or Section 504 plan. She asked what will be done with that information and whether it could cause unintended consequences for students. The mayor asked the chief to follow up with staff on what the city will report and how the data will be used.
The interlocal agreement appeared on the consent agenda for approval; council approved consent items (including the SRO interlocal) as part of a block vote that passed unanimously. The city and school district will monitor operations next school year and the department said it will provide coverage expectations for the SRO program.
