AGENDA #11a

BUDGET WORKING PAPER

TO:                  W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

FROM:            Gregg Jarvies, Police Chief

SUBJECT:       Services and Costs of School Resource Officers

DATE:             April 27, 2005

The purpose of this memorandum is to respond to questions raised at the April 6 budget work session regarding the services provided by School Resource Officers and the cost of the program at both the middle schools and high schools.

The Police Department provides one School Resource Officer (SRO) at each high school and middle school.  The primary responsibility of the SRO’s is to provide security for the staff, students and facilities.  They assist school staff with routine patrols of the grounds, management of disruptive students and behavior, trespassing of unauthorized visitors, and the arrest of criminal violators after consultation with school officials. SRO’s also serve many other functions, including teaching classes, serving as coaching assistants, and serving as mentors and counselors in conjunction with established school programs.

We believe it is appropriate for the school system to fund the entire cost of the SRO program.  The schools receive the full-time services of five officers and exercise complete control over those officers (except for mandatory police training and community emergencies).  Other organizations that receive police services above and beyond those provided to all citizens pay for those dedicated services. 

Superintendent Neil Pedersen has requested that the Town absorb the entire cost of the middle school SRO’s.  We responded to the superintendent’s request with a proposal in which we agreed to absorb the cost of the three middle school officers for eight weeks during the summer.  A copy of our response to Superintendent Pedersen is attached.  If this proposal is accepted the three positions would be assigned to the downtown area and would be assigned to help provide summer vacation relief.

The total cost of the SRO program for FY 2005-06 will be approximately $306,950.  If the Town pays for eight weeks of salaries and benefits for the three middle school SRO’s, the Town would pay $25,850 and the school system would pay the balance.

If the CHCCS chooses to not to fund the three middle school SRO positions, the positions would be eliminated from the Police Department’s budget and the officers assigned to routine patrol duties in the Town.