Alabama’s largest public school district on cusp of adding 12 armed sheriff’s deputies to schools
Mobile AL August 24 2023
Alabama’s largest public school system is on the cusp of hiring a dozen armed sheriff’s deputies who will be placed at the school system’s high schools and will be charged with preventing violent crimes or potential shootings.
The Mobile County School System and the Mobile County Commission are continuing negotiations that will lead to the hiring of 12 new sheriff’s deputies, paid for by the school system, and who will work full-time at the county’s school system.
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“It’s something I thought was needed for a long time,” Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said Monday. “I never understood why schools in Mobile County do not have officers in the schools, short of their resource officers who cannot carry a gun nor make an arrest.”
He added, “We’ve been fortunate nothing tragic has happened in the schools. I do not want to just sit and wait (for something tragic to happen). I want us to be proactive and deter anyone from doing anything like that other than reacting to a tragedy.”
The Mobile County School Board and the County Commission will both need to separately approve a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will spell out the terms and conditions of a three-year program that, all told, will cost the school system around $4.2 million.
The costs are for the salaries and equipment for each new sheriff’s deputy that is hired and placed within the school system. For the first year, the school system will appropriate approximately $1.8 million, and $1.2 million for both the second and third years.
The county commission was set to approve their agreement on Monday, but held off while negotiations continue.
Burch is hopeful that within the next “month and a half,” the MOUs will be adopted by both boards, and he can begin hiring new deputies, who will then be placed at schools within the Mobile County School System.
