Glendale Takes Serious Step Toward School Safety With SRO Initiative

On Friday, Glendale officials announced a school safety initiative to significantly increase the level of school resource officer (SRO) support at Glendale’s public high schools. Effective immediately, all of the city’s nine public high schools in four different school districts will have a dedicated Glendale police officer on campus.

“I am delighted to lend my support to the city of Glendale and this incredible initiative,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas said. “There is nothing more important than keeping our children safe and I hope cities throughout Arizona take a page out of Glendale’s playbook and follow suit. I also could not be more impressed that Glendale is going to have these officers ready to serve on campus immediately.”

Glendale Police Chief Rick St. John, along with Glendale Mayor Jerry P. Weiers and City Manager Kevin Phelps, believe that this initiative is necessary in the current climate of increased violent threats against students and teachers. Should there be any threat or incident, the role of the school resource officer will be to provide rapid response capabilities to every public high school within Glendale Police Department’s jurisdiction.

“I want to ensure the citizens of Glendale that myself, the City Council, our city management and our police department are committed to keeping our schools and all of our citizens safe,” Mayor Weiers said. “Highly trained police officers are exactly what we need in our schools protecting and serving students and staff and that is why we have made the decision to take the lead by taking this action.”

The implementation of this plan will result in a full-time Glendale police officer on every high school campus in the city. A new dedicated SRO will be on the school grounds for Deer Valley High School, Mountain Ridge High School, Apollo High School, Glendale High School and Independence High School. Previous assignments of full-time resource officers at Raymond S. Kellis High School, Copper Canyon High School, Cactus High School and Ironwood High School will continue.

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