Daviess County Public Schools creates police force
Daviess County KY Feb 26 2020 Officials for Daviess County Public Schools and the Daviess County Sheriff’s Department said the school district’s plan to create its own police force is a positive move for both agencies.
Damon Fleming, director of student services for the school district, said the plan is to have the new force in place in time for the start of school in August, which he said effectively puts more officers on duty in the county.
“Not only are the schools gaining, the community will be gaining four officers,” Fleming said Friday.
The plan, which was announced last week, is for DCPS to hire five special law enforcement officers (SLEOs) to provide security at the schools. The new officers will replace the two school resource officers currently supplied by the Daviess County Sheriff’s Department.
The state’s school safety law has a goal of all school districts having a school resource officer or special law enforcement officer in each school, or on each school campus, as resources become available.
Like the sheriff’s deputies they are replacing, the special law enforcement officers will be Police Officer Professional Standards certified, will receive annual training required by the state and will have full law enforcement powers.
Fleming said in terms of structure, district Superintendent Matt Robbins will be over the program, and Fleming, as district school safety coordinator, will have direct oversight of the department. The plan is for one of the five hired to serve as a lead officer who will be responsible for some administrative duties, such as scheduling officer training and records management.
One officer will be stationed at each high school with the other three stationed at Burns Middle School, College View Middle School and Daviess County Middle School. The officers at the middle schools will each be responsible for responding to issues at four elementary schools.
“We are going to want them to spend time in those elementary schools … and also do some programming for those schools as well,” Fleming said. District officials want the officers at the middle schools “to have the flexibility to go out and establish a relationship with those (elementary) kids, too,” he said.
Law enforcement activities are generally public record, except for juvenile records. Fleming said the district’s police department would handle its records the same as the Owensboro Police Department and the sheriff’s office.
The district’s officers would not have arrest powers off school grounds unless they were responding to or investigating an incident that happened on school grounds or on school property like a school bus, Fleming said.
Major Barry Smith, chief deputy for the sheriff’s office, said the school district pays the sheriff’s office $90,000 annually for its two school resource officers. By switching to the SLEO model, DCPS will be able to hire officers at less cost than it pays to use sheriff’s deputies, he said.
“We had discussions on growing the SRO program at the sheriff’s office, but the problem is, financially, as deputy sheriff’s they are classified as hazardous duty.” When a worker is considered hazardous duty in the state’s retirement system, their pension cost is 18% higher than a non-hazardous duty worker, Smith said.
The officers in the school district’s SLEO model would be classified as non-hazardous duty employees. Also, the sheriff’s department pays for health insurance for deputies and their families, which amounts to $14,000 annually for a family plan.
The state pays for insurance for school district employees, so DCPS wouldn’t bear that cost for the SLEO program, Smith said.
Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain said the sheriff’s department has been in discussions with DCPS officials about transitioning from school resource officer to the SLEO model for more than a year.
“Everybody involved in that discussion and dialogue, their first concern is the safety of those kids out there,” Cain said.
The school’s plan “has the advantage of placing more certified officers in our schools,” he said.
The two school resource officers will return to the sheriff’s department, and the department will assume their full salaries. Smith said the plan is to eliminate one deputy position through retirement, with the net result of the department gaining one additional deputy for patrol.
When asked if there were issues with the SRO program that prompted DCPS officials to consider forming their own department, both Fleming and Cain said no.
“We were very happy with it,” Fleming said. “We would have loved to expand with the (SRO) model. But financially, for both parties, it wasn’t possible to expand that way.”
Cain said, “there’s absolutely no negatives to this whatsoever. … My only (preference) would have been to put five more deputies out there, but the funds weren’t available.”
Cain said the new model doesn’t sever the sheriff’s department’s relationship with DCPS.
“We will still have a presence at the schools,” Cain said. “Our officers are encouraged to make frequent visits there” and to engage with the students.
The sheriff’s office will also continue to provide active shooter training to county schools’ staff, Cain said.
In an emergency or request for additional assistance, the sheriff’s department will respond to the schools, Smith said. Regarding the walk-throughs of county schools, he said, “it’s good for students to get to see us. Those (walk-throughs) pay huge dividends, and we’ll continue to do that.”
“The sheriff’s department has been very supportive” of the program, Fleming said. “… We all came to the conclusion that this was the best way forward to expand the program.”
