July 23, 2010

Wash. city adds school resource officers

The Yakima police department received $1.7 million from a three-year COPS grant

By Viviana Buzo
Yakima Herald-Republic

The Yakima School District and Yakima Police Department have entered an agreement to provide two additional school resource officers for the district with the aid of the federal COPS hiring grant.

The officers will be placed at Franklin and Wilson middle schools.

In 2009, the federal government distributed $1 billion in grant funding from COPS, or Community Oriented Policing Services, to law enforcement agencies around the country.

The police department received $1.7 million from the three-year grant that took effect June 30, 2009, and terminates June 30, 2012.

The grant is intended to help agencies add or retain police officers during the economic downturn.

It will be used to create five new positions and retain two positions in the police department.

The agreement between the school district and police department - - also for three years -- runs from Sept. 1 to June 30, 2013.

Yakima Police Capt. Jeff Schneider said the grant pays only for entry-level wages and benefits. The police department will hire five rookies and provide the school district with two seasoned officers.

The school district currently has four school resource officers, stationed at Eisenhower High School, A.C. Davis High School, Washington Junior High School and at Lewis and Clark Middle School.

The school district handles 75 percent of the financial responsibility for the current officers, and the city of Yakima pays 25 percent.

The two additional officers will be fully covered by the police department until June 2012, when the grant ends. The school district will be responsible for funding the positions in the third year of the agreement.

The combined expense is $181,600 -- $90,800 per officer. That figure includes salary and benefits.

Last fall, the district opted to hire a private security officer to patrol Stanton Academy, an alternative high school in Union Gap. The contracted officer was paid through the school district and the city of Union Gap. The contract for that position has since ended, and it's unclear whether it will be reinstated for the upcoming year, which begins Aug. 30.

While the six officers have school-based assignments, some can travel between schools depending on situations, said Superintendent Elaine Beraza.

"The SROs provide support to other schools as well," said Beraza. "One might be asked to go over to Whitney at times. Not because there is a problem, but because they establish relations and provide communication to other students to encourage appropriate conduct as positive role models."

If there is an emergency at another school, an officer will be sent there.

"A lot of it is preventative, though, and SROs also gather data and information from outside sources," said Beraza. "They probably know about criminal and gang activity. It provides them another eye to observe and monitor our kids.

"One of their most important jobs is to keep people who don't belong off campus and help students in routine and emergency situations," she said. "Sometimes it's first aid and not security."