North Carolina school district contracts with “Private Police Force” to provide school resource officers
WASHINGTON, Beaufort County NC March 30 2021— Beaufort County Schools will not be using local police for school resource officers but instead have a new partnership with Allied Universal Security to provide the district with school resource officers.
In-person classes are back in session, with staff and students back on campus, Superintendent Matthew Cheeseman broke down the future of security for NewsChannel 12.
“This is a reputable company who is able to provide North Carolina sworn law enforcement officers who are armed, known as “Company Police” ” he said.
Allied Universal Security Services is out of Charlotte and will be at every school starting July 1.
“They are able to provide one per school,” Cheeseman said.
It’s a partnership that keeps Allied Universal at schools throughout the entire day.
“So, just typically just before school, during school, all the way to closing, and after school — and maybe some of our extracurricular activities,” he explained.
The new partnership will be change from the current agreement with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
“The sheriff’s deputies have done a great job of still securing our buildings, so they are with us until the end of this school year; however, they are at times intermittent, meaning they are pulled away for other activities for the sheriff’s department,” Cheeseman said.
Sustainability at the school throughout the day is one thing the superintendent says will be provided by the security company.
Allied Universal is not the type of officer you see walking through the mall or securing a business,” he said. “This is a sworn police officer dressed as a sworn police officer, uniformed similar to what a state trooper would look like.
NewsChannel 12 spoke with a parent who did not wish to go on camera but says she had concerns about this being a company-based police force; we took these concerns to the superintendent.
“The conversation of saying we may have defunded officers isn’t true, it is actually the opposite,” he said. “The county commissioners did a nice job of increasing the funding to make sure that our schools are going to be safe.’”
Superintendent Cheeseman also says the board is asking the company to look into local hires as well.
In North Carolina, “Company Police Officers must be graduates of a Basic Law Enforcement Training academy, the same course that every police officer in the state graduates from.
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