HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 9/22/2020 - Memorandum From Assistant Chief Of Police Tim Doran Re: Assess The Ramifications Of Suspending The School Resource Officer (Sro) Contract
Fort Collins Police Services
Patrol Division
2221 S. Timberline Road PO
Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6555
970.416.2145 - fax
fcgov.com
MEMORANDUM
DATE: September 11, 2020
TO: Mayor & City Councilmembers
THROUGH: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Jeff Swoboda, Chief of Police
FROM: Tim Doran, Assistant Chief of Police
RE: Assess the ramifications of suspending the School Resource Officer (SRO) contract
____________________________________________________________________________
Background
On 6/23/2020, the Poudre School District (PSD) voted 6 to 1 to retain SROs in the schools. The board
approved the contract after the PSD administration returned with additional plans to address some of the
community's concerns, including a mandatory reporting requirement for SROs when they're involved in
code of conduct violations by a student and the creation of a Community Advisory Council to provide
consistent oversight of the SRO program. Concurrently, the impact of COVID-19 prompted PSD to start the
2020-21 school year via remote education, currently scheduled through at least 10/17/2020. Fort Collins
Police Services (FCPS) was asked by the City Manager to assess the ramifications of suspending the SRO
contract entirely through the end of 2021 school year (June 2021).
Recommendation
During periods which PSD is in Phase 1 (completely remote learning), FCPS recommends the SRO team be
reduced from 14 to seven officers to adequately provide services to the off-site 33,000 students and staff.
The SRO Team of seven would include a unit supervisor, one corporal and five line-level SRO officers. While
one of the primary missions of responding to a school shooting is negated because students are temporarily
not in schools, the bulk of the SRO missions are still necessary. For example, FCPS has seen a rise in mental
health issues, child exploitation, juvenile violence and weapon-related calls, homelessness, and many other
serious issues which SROs typically handle daily. Other duties include:
Investigate and follow up on Safe2tell tips, which incidentally remain at pre-COVID-19 levels.
SROs will take calls involving family disturbances involving juveniles, juvenile runaway calls, Sexting
and sexual exploitation involving juveniles, harassment (cyberbullying, online bullying, juvenile
harassment issues). This will help with continuity of how juvenile cases are handled.
Participation in the following collaborative meetings: Juvenile Recovery Court, Juvenile Gun
Coalition, Juvenile Services Planning Committee, The HUB Forum, DHS Forum, Restorative Justice
Circles, and Level II Threat Assessments (PSD).
SROs teach virtual classes on Internet safety and digital citizenship, and any other classes requested
by school staff.
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In partnership with PSD administrators, counselors and mental health professionals, SROs will
conduct welfare checks on students that have been identified as high risk, needing additional
supports, expressing mental health concerns, or have not connected with the school.
FCPS strenuously supports the continued practice of placing SROs in the secondary schools, whether in the
above temporary hybrid model of remote learning or full in-person participation. A well-implemented SRO
program bridges the gap between law enforcement (LE) and youth, builds positive relationships which can
last lifetimes, all while helping to protect schools from a wide variety of threats. Additionally, a permanent
SRO team reduces referrals of students to the juvenile justice system, especially when compared to an
alternative non-school specific law enforcement response model. The below points will summarize the Pro’s
and Con’s to the removal of the SRO program and their redeployment into other areas of law enforcement.
What is LOST when not retaining SROs?
SAFETY AND SECURITY
1. Response Time
When SROs are not assigned to the school, the response time to an emergency would be
measured in minutes, as opposed to seconds.
Seconds count when intervening in a hostile event. How many lives would be saved if an
SRO is in the area, as opposed to an officer responding from across town?
2. Knowledge of the school - SROs are intimately familiar with the school layout, hiding places, hallway
names, specific students in crisis, and access points.
3. Feelings of safety and security from those students (and parents) who desire SROs in the schools.
4. Removing SROs would eliminate the visual and actual deterrent to would-be assailants; this would
transition schools from a current “hard target” to a “soft target.”
A soft target is a location that is relatively unprotected, making it vulnerable to a shooter.
A hard target is a location which has appropriate protective measures and minimizes
existing risks, and thus an unattractive target.
5. If SROs were removed, who would orchestrate the lockdown drills and conduct run-hide-fight
training and assessments?
EDUCATOR AND COUNSELOR
6. Loss of an informal counselor
SROs are counselors to the students, shaping the lives of young people in sometimes subtle
and sometimes stark ways. They are positive role models for countless kids who often do
not have a role model at home.
SROs have keen observation skills to recognize someone in or approaching crisis, and help
save them from themselves, often through substance abuse or attempted suicide.
7. Loss of an educator/instructor
SROs teach 1,000+ hours per year in approximately 10 subjects.
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Most of this teaching capacity would evaporate if delegated to an already burdened Crimes
Against Persons Unit or other detective groups. SROs currently never say, “No” or, “We are
too busy.”
INVESTIGATIONS
8. Threat and Safe-2-Tell investigations would take 3x longer (or more), as the students are generally
well-known to the SROs, but not to the broader police department.
An SRO can immediately assess a threat based on the known players, and his or her
associates. A general investigations detective could take half a day researching someone’s
history before being able to assess the viability of a threat.
SROs have training in, and access to, the school “Synergy” database, as well as the video
surveillance camera system to readily corroborate information.
9. PSD administrators are not educated in the nuances of law and the Colorado Revised Statutes,
search and seizure, mandatory reporting, the Victims’ Rights Act, school safety, and the Claire Davis
Safety Act.
The SRO is an in-house resource to school administrators.
There is no better individual to consult when juggling the legal nuances of interviewing
minors. Interviews can be grouped into administrative, witness, victim, and criminal
subject. To get this wrong would not only jeopardize convictions, it could place the school in
legal (both criminal and civil) jeopardy.
This is evidenced in the 2018/2019 school data where of the 251 criminal violations that
enforcement action was taken, over 100 of the incidents were victim-based where law
enforcement intervention was requested by the victim or required by law (ex. sexual
assault, domestic violence, weapons on campus, sexual exploitation, assault etc…)
10. In the context of policing, discretion means officers are given some leeway on which they can rely
as they make choices which impact the population they are policing. Removing SROs from the
schools will encourage a more by-the-book approach to the criminal justice system, as the
responding officer will have no context as to the student’s situation.
11. Imagine the inconsistent response to school incidents if relegated to nearly 100 Patrol officers, 50+
detectives, or 60+ Special Operations officers.
COMMUNITY POLICING AND BUDGET
12. Removing SROs is contrary to the proven concepts of Community Policing and provides ZERO
continuity of service. Community Policing is a philosophy which “promotes organizational strategies
that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively
address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social
disorder, and fear of crime.”
SROs are more than just cops in the corridors. They are members of the faculty and school
administration—they are members of the school community.
SROs form friendships with kids who may otherwise be alienated or ostracized. They are
often the first line of defense against bullying—both “in real life” and in cyberspace.
There are 38 Schools and over 33,000 students serviced by the SRO team, a community
which deserves special attention.
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Currently SROs sit on various committees and boards. Who would handle these
assignments if SROs were disbanded?
SROs care about PSD students as much as any teacher, administrator, or PSD employee!
13. Students would no longer experience a consistent and positive connection with LE.
There would be far fewer instances of bridging the gap between LE and youth; currently life-
long relationships are built inside the schools.
A student might say, “We know you’re not like the officers in … (pick your city).” And an SRO
could respond with, ‘Well, you know that because you had a chance to get to know me.”
14. Removing SROs inaccurately presupposes any officer can respond to a school to handle an incident.
SROs should not be viewed as patrol officers in schools. They are highly specialized and
specifically trained to handle the unique environment populated almost entirely by young
people.
Being an SRO is a completely unique assignment and is not for everyone. Just like being a
bomb technician or a SWAT operator, it takes a special individual to be an SRO.
All officers do not receive specialized SRO training on topics such as the FERPA - Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (the educational version of HIPPA), dealing with special
needs children, and teaching at all grade levels and ages.
15. PSD participates in the selection process for SROs, and thus plays an integral role in selecting the
right person for this critical mission.
First and foremost, officers are carefully selected. FCPS, with the concurrence of PSD,
chooses veteran officers who have the highest moral standards, who really want to work
with kids, and who have demonstrated they have this capability.
16. This would create a City Budget shortfall of approximately $800K.
What is GAINED when not retaining SROs?
1. Administrators will be forced to deal with all code of conduct and mental health issues.
Another potential benefit to removing police from regular patrol in the hallways is that
teachers and administrators will have to completely handle unruly and uncooperative
students.
All too often school staff rely on SROs in difficult situations with students in which there is
no violation of law.
2. Students who are afraid of LE, no longer have this localized psychological stress of having an SRO on
campus.
3. Students who have questionable legal residency mitigate their concern the police are researching
their immigration status. NOTE: This is against FCPS Policy, but the students and their parents may
not be aware of this.
4. FCPS will avoid some, if not all, civil and criminal liability as it pertains to the wide array of discipline.
Currently liability is shared between school administrators and FCPS, as the SRO is
appropriately consulted for his/her expertise in legal situations.
All questions of discipline disparity are shouldered by PSD.
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5. SROs who are released from school responsibilities can be redeployed to other specialized units,
investigations, or patrol.
Reassigning SROs to regular patrol could possibly help reduce crime in other areas.
Given the fact many agencies across the country face staffing issues already, putting more
officers on the streets could make a difference in the neighborhoods those students call
“home” when they are not in class.
6. Schools can re-deploy $800K to mental health services or other critical needs.
Conclusion
FCPS feels it is an extreme overcorrection to remove law enforcement from the schools. We do not live
anymore in an era when the Vice Principal served as the proverbial judge and jury. Sadly, Colorado is the
genesis of the American school shooting genre and has had four school shootings since Columbine in 1999.
The last one was a recent as May 7, 2019 at STEM School Highlands Ranch which resulted in one student
dead, two suspects in custody, and eight people injured. The tenor stemming from an anti-police emotional
pendulum should not obscure the reality that Superintendent Dr. Sandra Smyser, just six months ago
requested Chief Swoboda to consider increasing the number of SROs in her schools. FCPS stands together
with PSD and countless other community service providers in our commitment to providing all youth in our
community with a safe learning environment. Removing SROs from our schools would generate a myriad of
unintended consequences, and it would ultimately be the innocent young who suffer.
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