A new report by the Marin County Civil Grand Jury recommends hiring more school resource officers to ensure safe learning environments for students.
The grand jury found that school safety resources vary in communities throughout the county. Some public school districts have full-time school resource officers, or SROs, who are sworn law enforcement officers assigned to schools. Other districts rely on a shared school officer employed by the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
That officer “covers 34 schools with over 9,200 students, throughout a 521 square mile territory,” the report says. The grand jury recommends the sheriff’s office hire two additional full-time school officers.
“Funding SROs to serve at schools in Marin County is a sound investment,” the report states, “because it prevents crime and teaches students to trust and work with law enforcement officers and other authority figures.”
The report, released Thursday, isn’t the first time the grand jury has underscored the importance of school officers. In a 2010 report, titled “School Resource Officers: A Proactive Approach to School Safety,” the jury recommended retaining resource officer programs — which are often funded on an annual basis — in schools that have them, and establishing programs in schools that don’t.
In its new report, titled “School Resource Officers Revisited,” the jury made the same recommendation. It wrote that in the years since the 2010 report, “tragic incidents on school campuses have continued nationwide. During that time, the proliferation of guns, semi-automatic weapons, and drugs has skyrocketed, and social media has become a central part of students’ lives.”
Those changes, among others, the report says, prompted a second look at school resource officers in Marin.
“We’re hearing more and more about this, not just locally, but regionally, because of some of the instances of school violence that you’re seeing,” said Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle.
Having a dedicated school officer is valuable for Marin, Doyle said, but the jury’s recommendation to hire two more might not be financially feasible.
“It’s a matter of priorities,” he said, “and we have a lot of them.”
The grand jury report acknowledges the financial challenges in bolstering school officer programs. On average, a full-time school officer costs between $80,000 and $110,000, and many officials say their communities “can’t afford them,” the report says.
The jury recommends schools and law enforcement agencies share the cost of those officers’ salaries. It also recommends paying for the officers through sales or parcel tax revenues and seeking other local, state and federal funding sources, including grants.
The report praises Novato’s school officer program. This school year, the Novato Unified School District has two full-time school officers funded by the Novato Police Department. Next school year, the district will pay the salary of one officer through a state Department of Justice grant.
The grant money comes from a voter-approved excise tax increase on tobacco products and is intended to pay for tobacco prevention programs. According to a school administrator, the police department will pay for the second officer’s salary.
“In light of the benefits to schools, law enforcement, and the community, efforts should be made to share the costs of funding SRO programs,” the grand jury report states. “Marin school boards must take the lead in working with city councils and law enforcement to identify sustainable funding for programs in their communities and work together to secure them.”
Opposition to school resource officers, the report says, includes those who say money is better spent hiring school counselors or social workers. Other critics say that the presence of armed law enforcement on campus can negatively affect students psychologically, or that there is no empirical evidence suggesting that the officers keep schools safer.
“In response,” the report says, “SRO advocates contend that in addition to providing for school safety, SROs provide positive role models for students and help thwart crime and gang activity.”
The report recommends San Rafael, which has one school resource officer, hire an additional full-time SRO. It also recommends Mill Valley assign a full-time officer to its schools. The Mill Valley Police Department has a juvenile detective, the report says, who responds to incidents on schools but doesn’t regularly interact with students.
“You have to balance resources,” said Mill Valley Mayor Jim Wickham.
Wickham, a retired Mill Valley police captain, served as a school officer at Tamalpais High School for three years during the 1980s.
“The relationships you build with these young people is a huge benefit,” he said, “especially when they feel comfortable talking to you.”
The grand jury report says school officers often act as counselors and mentors to youngsters, which can be an important resource for kids going through turbulent times.
“To this day,” Wickham said, “I still have people in their early 50s tell me, ‘You know Jim, you really saved my life.'”
June 4, 2019
Marin Independent Journal
By Matthew Pera
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