Tuesday, January 15, 2013
News APS school board mulls over establishing police force
Posted by Max Blau @maxblau on Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 1:29 PM
As part of the initiative, which was presented at yesterday's Board of Education meeting, the "School Resource Officer" program would train full-time law enforcement on topics like counseling and resource skills. These armed officers, Davis says, could improve response time when it comes to incidents that take place at one of its schools and even could help prevent certain crimes altogether.
Marquenta Sands, the APS' director of safety and security, offered a presentation on the school system's current security measures before elaborating on the benefits of the APS having an independent police force. Davis noted that the move would replace the 55 full-time and 233 part-time APD officers currently providing security at the district's middle and high schools.
Following the presentation, Davis also added:
What we need is a more full time commitment. With the cluster framework we want to have officers who are there full time and learn all of the kids in the cluster as they move from elementary to middle to high school. The officers can do planning among themselves, identify sensitive relationships and head these issues off much earlier. There is a lot more prevention in this plan than in the past. The question is where do we get full time officers and there we need to be careful as the city is trying to put more officers on the street and we want to be more respectful of that. I don't want anyone, however, to be surprised about the direction that we are going.
One current problem cited at the meeting is that 70 percent of APS security personnel report directly to the APD, reducing the direct response time to potential crimes. Sands also cited that other metro Atlanta districts - including Fulton, DeKalb, and Cobb counties - already have their own police officers.
"We want trained officers and continuity in our buildings and we want them to have a better understanding of chain of command in regards to safety and security," Davis says. "The APD officers while working with us, do not work for us and every once in a while we learn that."
APS board members commented that they weren't sure if the move made sense from a financial standpoint, and that projected costs were not yet available. Davis replied that a full report should be available sometime in the next two to three months.
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