PHOENIX — In just a few weeks, students will be walking onto school campuses again, but some Phoenix schools may not have school resource officers (SRO).
In a city council meeting last week, councilwoman Ann O’Brien said the City of Phoenix is “dangerously low” on officers.
"We are approximately 560 sworn officers short and unfortunately, we don't have the capacity to provide an SRO to every school who is requesting them today,” she said in the meeting.
Several schools did get approval for SROs. These are schools that previously had a contract with the city prior to it needing to be re-upped this year.
According to the city council agenda, they entered into an agreement for 71 schools to get a total of 64 SROs.
However, there were at least nine schools that did get funding from the Arizona Department of Education for SROs, but remain unfilled because of the staffing shortage. These schools did not have a contract with the City of Phoenix the school year prior.
The police department would need to give 46 officers on a one-to-one basis if they were able to fulfill those nine schools’ requests.
One of the districts, Phoenix Union High School District, is included in that list.
The district’s board has been in months-long conversations about bringing back SROs, which they ultimately did. However, because of the city’s police department staffing shortage, the future is unclear.
“Unfortunately, it’s the kids who are paying the price for all of this and that’s not fair to them,” said Crystal Sosa, a mom of a senior at Cesar Chavez High School. “Our kids have the right to go to school and feel safe. Now, we’re still stuck in this hole of not having an SRO which is very, very disappointing and sad.”
The Phoenix Union High School District offered a statement in response to the conversations at the city council meeting:
Phoenix Union continues to work in partnership with the City of Phoenix as we prioritize safety in our schools. We are hopeful that we can work together to find solutions that benefit our staff, students, and visitors. The law enforcement shortage facing our city and our nation is a challenge that will require all of those involved to work together on creative solutions. We are grateful for the support that the Phoenix City Council and the Phoenix Police Department have provided as we prepare for a safe 2023-2024 school year.
The Western School of Science and Technology is a Phoenix charter school that received funding from the Arizona Department of Education but can’t get an SRO yet.
Jessica Makowske, the school’s director, tells ABC15 they felt now was the right time to ask for that safety measure, as they’ve been focused on COVID-19 the past few years when students were not on campus.
“We’ve seen an increase in violent acts happening at schools and we want to ensure that doesn’t happen here at Western,” Makowske said.
While they’re disappointed they can’t get an SRO just yet, they understand the shortage, as the education industry is going through one, too.
Although some couldn’t get their request fulfilled, the schools do have their own safety measures they’ve been doing.
“For us at this time, we’re going to hold steady with everything we’ve been doing and really hope that Phoenix PD is able to recruit some new officers,” Makowske said.
After discussing the challenges of not being able to fulfill all SRO requests at this time, the city council asked staff to look into other avenues to help schools in other ways. This would include possibly hiring retired officers to become SROs, or those who are coming out of the military and have training to help out in schools. They’re also looking at going into the reserve program to help fill SRO positions.
The Arizona Department of Education tells ABC15 that it is “making all reasonable efforts to assist schools in securing SROs using state and federal grant funding.”
They added that where there are staffing issues they’ll also provide grants for school safety officers (SSO), which is a certified peace officer or full authority reserve officer certified by the AZ POST.
SSOs will perform the same duties as an SRO as required by existing School Safety Grant protocol, albeit in an off-duty or extra-duty capacity versus a full-time capacity. This provides much needed local flexibility and would be appropriate for schools that could not secure SROs in their communities, the Department of Education stated.
Legacy Traditional Schools in Phoenix also couldn’t get its SRO request fulfilled and sent a statement:
Legacy Traditional Schools’ highest priority is the safety of our students, teachers, and staff members. While we cannot disclose details of our security protocols, our schools take a layered approach that includes technology, physical barriers, trained personnel, and more.
Though some of our campuses’ requests for SROs provided by this existing grant could not be accommodated by the City of Phoenix this year, our efforts to discover other grants or opportunities that enhance our schools' safety protocols are continually pursued.
Our administrators remain in close contact with local law enforcement and continue to build partnerships with law enforcement in all communities we serve.
