Protests place focus on school resource officers

For the last week, communities across the country have been wrestling with the idea of defunding police departments in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of officers.

Not only have city police departments been the targets of defunding proposals, but residents are now calling for the removal of school resource officers from campuses.

Earlier this month, members of the Oakland Unified School District and the West Contra Costa School boards of education proposed severing contracts with local law enforcement agencies and their school resource officers.

Over the weekend, the Stockton Coalition for Shared Safety hosted a town hall webinar calling for the Stockton Unified School District to defund its own police department.

In Lodi, Police Chief Sierra Brucia has taken a proactive step in gauging what the city’s own school district wants to do.

“I have reached out to the (Lodi Unified) school district to see if they still want our officers to be on campus when school starts,” Brucia said. “The thing is, we’re not even quite sure how schools are going to open at this point, so we don’t really know if SROs will be on campus again or not.”

Brucia said he has not heard any suggestions or complaints from the community demanding school resources officers be removed from campus.

He added the district has not proposed terminating the memorandum of understanding with the department to fund four school resource officers, he said.

Two officers are assigned to Lodi and Tokay high schools, and the other two are assigned to all middle and elementary schools within the city limits.

The district has memorandums of understanding for SROs with the Stockton Police Department and the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department. Two Stockton officers are assigned to Bear Creek and McNair high schools, while a Sheriff’s deputy is assigned to LUSD campuses in unincorporated parts of the county.

“We have had a good working relationship with local law enforcement for many years,” district spokeswoman Chelsea Vongehr said.

The Lodi Police Department has provided SROs to the school district since the 1990s, Brucia said, adding he had been assigned to Lodi High School for about 18 months in the latter half of that decade.

He said the position has been able to provide not only a level of protection on campus, but a mentor for students and a stronger relationship with the community a department serves.

“I think you really saw a push after Columbine to have police on campuses,” he said. “There are a lot of different components to being an SRO though. When I was one, I taught a class about DUIs or drugs. I participated in the ‘Every 15 Minutes’ event.’ ”

The enforcement aspect of an SRO’s assignment, Brucia said, is to investigate or prevent criminal offenses on campus. They are not responsible for student discipline incidents such as truancy or class disruptions. That is for school staff, he said.

Brucia said SROs are typically assigned to Lodi campuses for about five years. While he was only assigned to Lodi High for about 18 months, he said he enjoyed interacting with the students, faculty and staff.

“I integrated myself into the daily workings of the school, and kind of felt like I was a staff member there,” he said. “I also felt like I put the staff at ease, giving them a sense of safety. But I loved interacting with the kids, answering their questions or seeing them in action in their regional occupational program. I was glad I was able to do it.”

An SRO can also be the adult a troubled student can confide in when they are afraid to report crimes happening off campus or in the home, Brucia said.

He said he had students report they were being bullied, or were victims of abuse, while some simply just wanted some advice for pursuing a career in law enforcement or to simply have someone to talk to during the day.

The role of the police officer has evolved and changed over the last 30 years, he said, adding the demands for defunding departments and SROs is simply the desire for less police involvement in all aspects of the community.

“Police officers have had to take on a lot more duties over the years because there were no specific resources for a lot of people we encounter on a daily basis,” he said.

“From dealing with homelessness and mental health issues, the police department really became a catch-all, even though we’re not fully funded or fully educated to deal with those types of situations.

“We do a really good job at law enforcement,” he said. “But I think the public pushed a lot of this down to the police department, and now they want to reallocate those duties to other resources. And we actually support that idea.”