Scottsdale City Council recently inked two intergovernmental agreements to provide school resource officers at both the Scottsdale Unified and Cave Creek Unified school districts.
“The School Resource Officer Program is designed to provide law enforcement services and law enforcement related education to schools within the city,” said Scottsdale Police Chief Joe LeDuc in his June 24 report to City Council.
Chief LeDuc pointed out school resource officers serve as positive role models to youth in crisis and play a critical liaison role between the police department and greater community.
“Additionally, school resource officers provide traditional police services while on school property and take enforcement action on campus when appropriate. The presence of school resource officers on campus also enhances the safety and general security of school campuses.
The current SRO program, which was re-established in 2022 through a new IGA, spells out the cost-sharing between the city of Scottsdale and SUSD and CCUSD.
“It’s partnerships like our SRO program with Scottsdale and Cave Creek schools that make good common sense,” said Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky. “I voted to approve these measures earlier this week because, as a mother, keeping our kids safe is always top of mind for me.”
Chief LeDuc points out that since 1987 both school districts have been utilizing the services of the police department.
“The program has been a positive resource for the city of Scottsdale, its citizens, the school district, and area youth,” he said.
Gods bless the resource officers. On the whole, IMHO, children are taught by pop and rap culture (if not their own ‘educators’) that deference and respect for authority figures (and adults in general) is passe’, and since they aren’t worry about said officer(s) going all ED-209 on them these brave men and women’s patience must be tested to its limits; damned if they do, damned if they don’t. So, shout out to them from a grateful parent.
We are grateful that SUSD will have additional SROs but very unhappy that Scottsdale Unified just paid $674,000 for new curriculum that will encourage children to advocate for “ending police violence” and reducing police resources.