PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Education on Wednesday announced it is rolling out a new program that will put more police officers in schools, despite a shortage of officers in the state.
Months ago, State Superintendent Tom Horne gave grants to schools so they could get school resource officers. While a majority of those were filled, not all of them were, as agencies such as the Phoenix Police Department said they did not have enough officers to give.
For one example, the Phoenix Union High School District asked for six school resource officers. In the July meeting with Phoenix City Council, the city said it would not be able to fulfill those needs due to the shortage.
Since the initial rollout, though, some schools were able to get school resource officers. The Phoenix Union High School District ended up getting two school resource officers even though it asked for six.
On Wednesday, Horne, alongside some local school district leaders, announced a solution to add more officers in schools.
The Arizona Department of Education (AZED) said it is contracting with Off Duty Management, a company that works on scheduling off-duty officers to serve in other jobs and areas. In this case, it will be in schools. That means some schools in one city will have police officers working from another city jurisdiction. It also may not be the same officer every day, unlike regular school resource officers who are dedicated to one school.
“The school might have five different police officers each different day but they’re covered for all the time,” Horne said.
The officers that are being placed in schools through this model are called "school safety officers" as opposed to "school resource officers."
Mike Kurtenbach, the director of school safety for AZED, said school safety officers are still sworn officers, they just don’t have as much training in a school setting compared to a school resource officer. Kurtenbach said SSOs will be getting at least eight hours of training through AZED for this program.
“When you work in that environment, you’re not necessarily exposed to the school environment. Those things that are unique to the school environment, we want to train those officers on,” he said.
The Western School of Science and Technology was one of a handful of schools that could not get an SRO at the start. However, with the new program, Superintendent Jessica Makowske said they will be asking for an off-duty officer.
“The off-duty officer is going to meet some of the needs we have here. So, it is an option that we can use,” she said.
Horne said there are as many as 138 school safety officers they’ll be able to place on school campuses in 11 Arizona counties through this contract with Off Duty Management.
School boards will have to approve of these school safety officers, and police departments will have to say yes as well.
Horne said the Phoenix Police Department did not agree, but after ABC15 reached out to the agency, Phoenix PD said they did not say they wouldn’t participate and have ongoing talks with Off Duty Management, offering a statement:
The safety of students and staff in our schools is a top priority for the Phoenix Police Department.
"We have reallocated personnel and have staffed 95% of the schools in our city which have requested a police officer on campus. Of the 122 schools that have requested an officer, we cover 116. We continue to look for creative ways to cover the additional six schools.
The schools are being staffed with either full time School Resource Officers or School Safety Officers.
These SSO’s have the same functions as full-time SRO’s except they are working in an off-duty capacity (days off from their regular work schedule with the City). These SSO’s received specialized training to work in the school atmosphere. We strive to keep the same SSO’s in the same schools for consistency and relationship building purposes.
We are in ongoing talks with Off Duty Management to further broaden the availability of our staff during off duty hours to support our schools."
