Under new contract, officers will be on-call for Tacoma schools but not stationed on campus
Tacoma WA Nov 14 2021
Tacoma Public Schools approved a new contract with the Tacoma Police Department on Wednesday that pays for two officers to be on call to respond to emergencies at schools district-wide.
The one-year contract is different from the former contract the district had with Tacoma Police Department, which paid for five police officers, called School Resource Officers, to be stationed on campus at each high school.
The old contract expired in August. Under the new contract, duties of the two School Liaison Officers include: responding to calls for law enforcement service occurring on school campuses during the school day, providing routine marked police car patrol and/or foot patrol on and around school campuses where appropriate to discourage unlawful behavior, and working with the District’s personnel to advise concerning vehicular, pedestrian and traffic safety on and around the school campuses.
The contract also calls for a SLO sergeant who is responsible for supervising the two SLOs and will work in partnership with the district to “identify security concerns and to take reasonable steps to create a safer learning environment,” according to the contract.
The agreement with TPD also establishes a Student Advisory Board that will work with the SLOs to help ensure student voices are heard and addressed.
The new contract, which has an expiration date of Aug. 31, 2022, also saves the district money, with an estimated cost between $350,000 and $500,000, compared to the former contract of $2 million. The new agreement follows a months-long examination of the district’s safety and security plan after a number of people, including the Tacoma teachers’ union, advocated for the removal of police officers on high school campuses.
Those who supported the removal voiced concern that some students, specifically students of color, might feel unsafe having armed police officers at schools.
In a letter to the board Wednesday, Tacoma parent ChaNell Marshall asked for the contract approval be delayed “so that a full presentation of the contract terms can be shared with the community and allow proper time for public review and comment on the contract.” Marshall asked for more information on the SLO selection, evaluation and removal processes.
“While the new structure of TPS contracting with TPD appears to be an improvement, there are still key details that seem to be missing from the contract,” Marshall wrote.
People opposed to the change worry about student safety if officers are not nearby. One parent, Andrew Paulson, wrote to the school board Wednesday, referencing an incident earlier this week in which a BB gun was spotted in the parking lot of Mt. Tahoma High School.
“If there was an officer onsite the response would or could have been that much quicker.
The point is providing the presence of deterrence against violent behavior,” Paulson wrote.
The Tacoma Police Union Local 6 could not immediately be reached Thursday for comment on the new contract.
A spokesperson with TPD said the department had not received the contract for signature yet and could not immediately respond. TPD Capt. Shawn Stringer told The News Tribune in February that the department is “committed to student safety and will continue working with the school district to implement the safety model that best fits our community.”
Amid protests across the country in June 2020 over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, and locally, the death of Manuel Ellis, Tacoma Public Schools said at the time that it would re-evaluate its contract with the Tacoma Police Department. The district paused its SRO program in February as students began returning to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and in July proposed a new safety and security plan that would remove officers from campuses and instead have them on-call for emergencies.
Former Superintendent Carla Santorno also proposed in July to have the district’s current school patrol officers — SPOs are employed by the district, unarmed and wear police-style uniforms — replaced by campus support specialists and Campus Safety Officers II.
These positions, which do not currently exist, act as first responders and would be the first to respond to on-campus conduct that may have a safety or security element.
These new positions require labor negotiations with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302, which represents internal district security staff. The district’s 25 campus safety officers would continue to operate at high schools and middle schools. CSOs are also unarmed and do not wear police-style uniforms.
thenewstribune.com
