Our View: Forming a school security force is a bad idea

Police Chief Galen Carroll’s job is to protect the city of Modesto – including the people, their homes, businesses and schools. The task of Modesto City Schools is to educate the city’s children.

We wouldn’t expect Chief Carroll to teach a fifth-grade class, and we don’t want the school district forming a pseudo-police force to patrol its campuses and nearby neighborhoods.

We understand and sympathize with the district’s dilemma. For years, the district paid to have Modesto police officers assigned to each high school campus through the school resource officer program. But budget cuts two years ago forced Carroll into drastic steps. First, he cut the program to four officers, covering all eight schools. Then, though his budget has stabilized, he has been faced with officers departing for higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

He needs 90 officers to adequately patrol Modesto, but he doesn’t have them. So, in late December, Carroll reassigned those last four school officers to patrol.

“It’s not a money thing, it’s a bodies thing,” Carroll said. “We had to do something; if we hadn’t done anything, we’d be down to 70 officers by March.”

It’s not just the schools. Carroll also pulled the officer out of Vintage Faire Mall, another out of the county Housing Authority and three out of the gangs unit. Sheriff Adam Christianson has taken similar measures for the same reason.

“My goal is for it to be a temporary thing,” said Carroll, who noted the current academy is full. “I feel bad that I’m pulling them from their schools ... but we’re not going to see the benefits of all the hiring we’re doing (for a year).”

So, when school resumes on Monday, the campus officers won’t be there. Without them, the district feels vulnerable.

Superintendent Pam Able was absolutely correct to order the hiring of additional campus supervisors.

“I understand they have an issue,” Able said, “but I have to make sure my students and staff are safe.”

At its Jan. 20 meeting, the school board will hear Able’s plan to establish a permanent security force for patrolling the district’s seven high schools and occasionally the junior highs starting with the 2015-16 school year.

She wants an officer at each high school and a supervisor at Elliott Alternative Education Center. Each will have a patrol car and each will be certified to use a police baton, a training many security guards receive.

But why not wait until the police can re-establish the program?

“We need consistency,” said Able.

The board should reject her plan.

▪ It adds a layer of bureaucracy in which the schools have little or no expertise.

▪ The startup cost for the cars, training and equipment is $297,000, with ongoing costs for maintenance and upkeep.

▪ While the contract with Modesto police was $452,000 per year for four officers, the district will spend only $371,500 for eight enhanced security guards. We don’t consider this a bargain. Few, if any, will possess the same level of expertise and training as police officers. If given tasks similar to those of actual officers, problems could arise.

▪ Other such experiments have led to costly problems. Twin Rivers Unified School District in Sacramento formed its own police department (a more ambitious solution than Modesto is considering) and encountered myriad problems – from attracting qualified officers to having officers over-react in confrontations with students and adults near the campuses. The district paid $650,000 in one lawsuit for false arrest and $225,000 in another for using excessive force.

Why is that important? Modesto City Schools’ website included this phrase: “The new security team will monitor campuses and trouble spots in surrounding neighborhoods.”

Under whose authority will these security guards operate when they are off campus? What happens if they hurt someone while trying to stop a fight or detaining anyone?

We share every parent’s most terrifying fear that some crazed individual (usually a student) will target their child’s school. Having a uniformed presence on campus can defuse such situations, not as they’re happening but before they begin. Police officers not only keep track of troubled students, but interact with them, sometimes helping with homework, sometimes shooting hoops and sometimes just talking to them.

That’s why school resource officers have gone from virtually nonexistent 40 years ago to some 17,000 today, according to the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing.

And that’s why we think the school board should wait, using additional campus supervisors, until the chief can solve his staffing problem and resume providing campus officers. Instituting a long-term solution for a short-term problem is an expensive overreaction. Sheriff Christianson said he, too, wants to resume his school resource officers program.

Our schools are a vital part of any community; they deserve protection from those whose job it is to provide it.

This story was originally published January 10, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Our View: Forming a school security force is a bad idea."