Carson City supervisors agree to continue School Resource Officer program, will split cost with district
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Thu, 04/02/2020 - 11:22am
The Carson City Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Thursday to engage in a partnership with the Carson City School District to fund the School Resource Officer (SRO) program, which provides for three law enforcement officers from the Carson City Sheriff's Office to focus primarily on working within the schools.
Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong gave a presentation at the Board of Supervisors meeting regarding the analytics and statistics of the SRO program within the schools. The city was asked to split the cost of the three officers within the district for a total of $430,438.81, half of which would be paid for by the city from the general fund.
According to the report, weapons violations within the school district increased in the last few years, from only one violation in 2017, to seven in 2018, jumping up to 12 in 2019. Drug violations also increased.
There has been a 25 percent decline in overall juvenile arrests after SRO program was instated during the past few years, according to Sheriff Furlong.
In 2018, four juveniles were arrested for murder or non-negligent manslaughter and in 2020 there were four juveniles arrests following the shooting of a marijuana drug dealer.
Stacey Giomi asked that an annual report be put together for both the school board and the board of supervisors by the Sheriff's Office in order to keep all parties, as well as the public, aware of what the program is accomplishing.
Sheriff Furlong said that they would have no problem presenting findings to the boards to give updates.
Approximately $215,000 would come from the general fund, and the other half would be paid for by the Carson City School District.
“The SRO program doesn’t say we won’t have a problem," said Sheriff Furlong. "What it does suggest is that we have qualified people ready to respond to any incident. I think policy makers need to be aware of what we do.”
“This is not just money thrown at this because we’re afraid of active shooters,” said Supervisor John Barrett, “although that is a concern. But it’s also because there are things you cannot qualify that come out of this (program) that go a long way that will never come out in a report.”
The Board voted unanimously to approve the partnership between the city, the Sheriff’s Office and the Carson City School District to fund the SRO program within the school district.
Carson City School District Superintendent Richard Stokes said he is grateful for the SRO program in the school district and for the safety it adds to the schools. He encouraged the board to vote yes on the motion to keep the program in the schools.
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