City approves more police in schools
Schenectady’s OK caps off long, raucous debate
A City Council committee has given the green light to put more school resource officers in city schools.
Their approval caps a debate over the officers’ presence that has roiled the district this spring.
The issue has generated protests in the city school system as well as a fight between members of the school board who support or oppose the addition of more officers.
Lawmakers on the Public Safety
Committee voted to enter into the agreement on Monday, paving the way for a vote next week that’s all but sure to pass the full body.
While the City Council holds the purse strings, their approval is merely symbolic.
Mayor Gary Mccarthy could still have signed the agreement that
would expand the program even without lawmaker approval, city Police Chief Eric Clifford said.
Yet lawmaker approval makes budgeting easier and presents a unified front.
“We’re looking to work collectively as a city government to get on the same page with this,” Clifford said ahead of the meeting. “We want this to be a success and don’t want it to be a disagreement… We will earn (students’) trust if they give us the opportunity.”
Public Safety Committee Chairman Carl Williams moved the resolution, which was backed by city Councilman John Mootooveren.
The city School Board voted 4-3 in March to approve the expansion, prompting both a walkout by students and internal warfare among school board members.
Under the plan, city police will add four officers to the two existing staffers. The $600,000 cost will be split between the school district and police department over the next three academic years.
Each will split half of the $100,000 salary for each officer, as well as 2 percent annual increases.
The four new officers will be assigned to the middle schools and a supervising officer would visit all of the district's locations.
Clifford pitched lawmakers on the plan two weeks ago, but the Public Safety Committee tabled a vote, citing the need for further review.
The proposal, first floated by city school district Superintendent Anibal Soler Jr. earlier this winter, has cleaved the community and has focused largely on whether armed police bolster school safety or cause more trauma to Black and brown students already fearful of them.
Dozens have spoken out at forums, with proponents and police contending an expanded law enforcement presence will provide role models and better protect students.
“We’re providing a service to the school district that we’d be providing anyways for calls for service,” Clifford said. “It’s giving us the ability to engage with the school community more frequently.”
One of the two officers at the high school previously said he’s assisted both staff and students with issues related to eviction, domestic violence, community and social services as well as other life tasks and obstacles.
But critics — including many students, parents and activists — argue that students are already overpoliced and that the funds should instead be used to boost the ranks of school guidance counselors and psychiatrists to better help struggling youngsters combat mental health and social issues resulting from the pandemic.
(The district has pointed out that it has already increased the number of school counselors and social workers in recent years.)
Officers will also patrol the high school perimeter to ensure students authorized to leave campus are not being disruptive in the surrounding neighborhoods, issues with which the district has previously grappled.
Soler has previously highlighted several highprofile violent incidents as evidence of the need for a bolstered law enforcement presence.
The role of the community engagement officers will not be to police students, Clifford said, and officers will only intercede if a student becomes violent.
The debate has also opened up a schism among school board members, exposing activist and first-term school board member Jamaica Miles to accusations by her colleagues that she has used students to further her agenda.
Miles has pushed back, calling the accusations defamatory, and has said that high schoolers solicited her input ahead of last month’s student-led demonstrations.
The yet-to-be-inked deal stipulates officer evaluations be done every June, giving both sides the flexibility to continue or cancel the arrangement if needed.
“We’re providing a service to the school district that we’d be providing anyways for calls for service. It’s giving us the ability to engage with the school community more frequently.” — Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford