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Cops in schools

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#1 ·
I would like an opinion from the police officers here in GT.

What are your thoughts about putting cops in schools?

I am trying to think of a reason why there can't be some room at the school for the police to do paperwork if nothing else so there is an armed presence even though I wouldn't expect there would be much to do MOST of the time.
 
#2 ·
The Education mafia is overwhelming hard left. They do not care for the police or what the police represent. Firearms are not welcome, no matter who wields them.

There are other threads about the problems encountered when reality attempts to enter the 'ivory towers' of education.

In over 20 years of street policing, I only encountered two reality based educators - one was the director of a charter school and the other was a retired USAF Chief Master Sergeant who got his PhD and was the principal of an elementary school. Both of their schools were run well. The others were constant centers of wasted efforts.
 
#3 ·
There are a lot of schools where there are already police. My high school had an officer that actually worked inside the school. That was her patrol area, the whole high school. Granted, I'd like to see at least two officers there, and I don't remember if the one officer was armed or not. But you'd occasionally see her wandering the halls, and she was very friendly and welcoming.
 
#4 ·
Where I live every school has had at least one (Some two) SRO's for the last twenty years.

That includes the patrol car left in front of the entrance. No one has ever tried to shoot up one of our schools.

We DID have a mass shooting at a local plant though.
 
#9 ·
We had an SRO until this summer when the officer retired. Now the SRO position is in financial limbo and we are currently operating without one. Daylight shifts have to do foot patrols through the high school to keep up a presence and our work load has increased since we now have to respond to every hiccup that occurs there. :steamed:

We also provide officers for security during football/basketball games.

For the folks in GNG...... Having an officer on campus was not viewed as any sort of decline into a "police state", in fact, the school came to lean heavily on our SRO to assist with problem students; the school principles would even call her on her cell phone on her days off before they could call 911.

Our SRO typically dealt with student fights, threats, tobacco use, minor drug/alcohol use, theft, harassment by text/email/facebook etc, and truancy. Real Gestapo stuff. :upeyes:
 
#10 ·
We had them in the ghetto where I worked and they were kept pretty busy- dope, guns, knives, fights, gang fights, parents and relatives coming to the school to battle other families, sporting event violence. Just normal American high school stuff in Blue America.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Last year a local school district had to close two elementary schools in neighboring towns (too old, too small, too many issues to remodel, etc) and they remodeled the one in our town.

Beginning in Sept of this year, in cooperation without our town, the school and town agreed to hire a full-time officer for the school. The school and town split the officers salary.

The officer has said that he has been receiving nothing but praise and positive comments from teachers, parents and students.
 
#12 ·
I am a school cop and have been very busy. I have one of the better schools in town and still manage to stay busy.

My campus is very supportive and knows what I am there for and doesn't bother me with the petty stuff. I am enjoying it and have really liked off the streets.

It is still policing just a different kind of policing.
 
#15 ·
Jefferson County Public Schools has sworn officers that patrol the schools after hours, but are not allowed to carry weapons per school board policy. :upeyes: This is in addition to the (relatively new; 10 years or so) SROs; I don't think every school even at the middle and high school level have SROs, though.

They go through the full regular police academy like any other LEO in the state, including using weapons in the academy, but don't have them when they start working. Makes a lot of sense, I know.

My idea for here, at least, would be to arm those folks that patrol, and have armed school "special police", basically security officers sworn as "Special Law Enforcement Officers" under state law, to be in the schools, at least one for EVERY school, during the hours they're occupied.
 
#16 ·
I have to admit that often times these days I see the latest crop of officers and wonder why they aren't still in school.

:dunno:
 
#17 ·
Here on Vegas we have post certified cat-1 school PD that patrol all the elementary middle and HS. Just not enough of them.

Oddly enough we have tons of post certified folks who cant find a job or graduated an academy got thier post cert but didnt make FTO and some simply got laid off due to budget cuts. We have alot of qualified post certified people here that could use an armed security job. Heck i wish i could do it part time on top of my LE job.

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#18 ·
Officers in schools are great, but they weren't really put there to prevent or engage an external threat. They will certainly do that though, and I'm sure there is more focus on that this week. I saw a Superintendent quoted today in opposition to officers in schools because then there would be more bullets flying if something happened. I don't understand how someone with a PhD can be carrying around that much stupid in one body.

Our high schools have always had officers, this week they added them to the middle schools. I have a kid in elementary. I sent the vice principal a note, offering to be a uniformed presence sometimes when I am off and followed up with a visit. Staff told me to come anytime. I'm hoping to get a couple of other parents to do the same. It won't be perfect, but between us and the city guys doing close patrol when they can, it is a lot better than nothing.

It is hard to imagine anyone's child huddled in a corner with the teacher telling them they are loved because she wants that to be the last thing they hear before they are murdered.
 
#19 ·
We have 3 full time SRO's that go between the schools throughout the day. They mainly teach DARE, but provide police presence as well.

I dont think I'd be well suited to "guard duty" at the schools.

Going back and forth to the different schools and teaching a class or two throughout the day is one thing, standing guard at the gates or in the office might lead me to swallow my tongue.

I would definitely not volunteer for that detail.
 
#20 ·
We had an SRO until this summer when the officer retired. Now the SRO position is in financial limbo and we are currently operating without one. Daylight shifts have to do foot patrols through the high school to keep up a presence and our work load has increased since we now have to respond to every hiccup that occurs there. :steamed:

We also provide officers for security during football/basketball games.

For the folks in GNG...... Having an officer on campus was not viewed as any sort of decline into a "police state", in fact, the school came to lean heavily on our SRO to assist with problem students; the school principles would even call her on her cell phone on her days off before they could call 911.

Our SRO typically dealt with student fights, threats, tobacco use, minor drug/alcohol use, theft, harassment by text/email/facebook etc, and truancy. Real Gestapo stuff. :upeyes:
Smoking / Chewing police! :rofl:
 
#21 ·
My high school (Johnson County, KS; aka, affluent) had two LEO's eployed by the school district's PD and one from the City PD. The City PD guy had a take-hone he parked out front. The others drove their POV's. They were assigned to that high school only. Every high school I went to had at least two or three full-sworn LEO's. They carried their equipment, too.

My middle school in the 90's had a dedicated City PD Officer, but one was not enough to even put a damper on what went on there.
 
#22 · (Edited)
The Los Angeles City School District, and the Los Angeles Community College District both have a FULL TIME POLICE Departments since like the 1970's. Think the Colleges are now policed by LASD.

A very good friend worked for the City School District, and was a Full Time Cops at one of the High Schools in LA.

He wore a Coat & Tie to bled in like the other staff, but being very truthful it was not a Coat & Tie job. Now they are in uniform.
 
#24 ·
The Los Angeles City School District, and the Los Angeles Community College District both have a FULL TIME POLICE Departments since like the 1970's. Think the Colleges are now policed by LASD.

A very good friend worked for the City School District, and was a Full Time Cops at one of the High Schools in LA.

He wore a Coat & Tie to bled in like the other staff, but being very truthful it was not a Coat & Tie job. Now they are in uniform.
LAUSD Police is a full sized and full service PD which numbers around the low 3 hundreds in sworn strength, making them one of the bigger departments around. They have detectives, K9, motors, SRT, patrol, and SRO programs. I got a few buddies there and they like the gig.

LACCD has been taken over by LASD and they have deputies on those campuses along with non-sworn LA County security which are armed, but wear white uniforms.

I did my stint as a SRO at a high school for a few months and was on call as back up SRO while on patrol for days when the SRO was off. Good stuff and admin mostly supported us when we had to do our job. It was mostly high visibility and low activity but when SHTF, it hit the fan... being 1 officer on a campus of a few thousand teens when they decide to riot wasn't fun.
 
#25 ·
So there I was this morning backed up on paper from the blizzard we had the last two days. Trying to be good little cops, my shift partner and I go park by a local elementary school to be seen, do reports, chat with the kids and basically be a deterrent to any whacko with a copycat/end of the world fetish ...

Then here comes the principal, her knickers all twisted up. She tells us that she doesn't want the police there being visible, it sends the wrong message, etc ... Truth is I zoned out, as her mere presence drained my IQ to the point it was hard to remember to breathe. My buddy and I didn't know if she was kidding and just lousy at telling jokes or serious. Turns out she was serious.

Anyways, we ended up moving down the street a ways to get her to shut up and leave. Several parents passing by said they were glad to see us there. I wonder if they know the school principals feelings.

Oh well. Guess Super Duper Principal can use a stapler and cell phone if anything goes down there.
 
#26 ·
So there I was this morning backed up on paper from the blizzard we had the last two days. Trying to be good little cops, my shift partner and I go park by a local elementary school to be seen, do reports, chat with the kids and basically be a deterrent to any whacko with a copycat/end of the world fetish ...

Then here comes the principal, her knickers all twisted up. She tells us that she doesn't want the police there being visible, it sends the wrong message, etc ... Truth is I zoned out, as her mere presence drained my IQ to the point it was hard to remember to breathe. My buddy and I didn't know if she was kidding and just lousy at telling jokes or serious. Turns out she was serious.

Anyways, we ended up moving down the street a ways to get her to shut up and leave. Several parents passing by said they were glad to see us there. I wonder if they know the school principals feelings.

Oh well. Guess Super Duper Principal can use a stapler and cell phone if anything goes down there.
Lucky our principals here love us and want us around. They call the chief and ask if we can go around their sites more often or just stay there and help them with traffic.
 
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