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Safety Law News for 4/3/13

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• Arizona Senate approved legislation allowing designated teachers, administrators or other employees in rural schools to carry a handgun.  The policy applies only to rural schools that have 600 students or fewer, are at least 20 miles and 30 minutes from the nearest police station, and lack a school resource officer.

• A new study reveals that the relationships SROs form with administrators, teachers, and students play an important role in their arrest decisions. The SROs in the study reported that they previously decided against making arrests despite evidence of criminal conduct. Moreover, they indicated that this decision occurred on numerous occasions and in differing circumstances.  77% of SROs indicated that they had previously refrained from arresting students because the students had never been in trouble before and 55% of respondents indicated that they had not arrested students after a fight because the students demonstrated that the fight was over.

• Maryland SRO suspended with pay and put on routine administrative leave after putting a camera in boys’ bathroom at a High School.

• Milford, Connecticut, plans to expand its school safety program by paying for SROs using the revenue generated from parking fines, permit fees and the sale of documents.

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Safety Law News for 4/1/13

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• A bill that increases the role of school resource officers in Colorado schools was unanimously approved by the state Senate.

•  Two counties in Alabama seek to amend the Alabama constitution to create funding to pay the costs of providing a school resource officer.

•  Officials from Newtown, Connecticut, will provide a keynote address at the National Association of School Resource Officers’ (NASRO) 23rd annual School Safety Conference, July 14 -19, 2013, in Orlando, to discuss the response to and recovery from the December school shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

• The Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved a bill that would allow certified volunteers to act as reserve school resource officers.

•  Northern Ohio communities and educators are seeing the benefits of school resource officers.

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Safety Law News for 3/27/13

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• Brookfield, Connecticut officials have heard the outcry of families desperate to ensure that their children and educators are safe in their schools and increased the budget so the police department can train and assign officers to the high school and middle school.

• The school resource officer in Ulster County, New York, whose gun went off while at the school on March 5, has resigned from the police department.

• Shenandoah County, Virginia’s Sheriff proposes to fund the school resource officer program using asset forfeiture money.

• Horse Cave, Kentucky’s Caverna High School begins school safety program that features a 24/7 law enforcement presence.

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Safety Law News for 3/22/13

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• The Phoenix, Arizona mayor introduces a school safety program that would add additional SROs at a cost of less than 50 percent of the traditional school resource officer, and would maintain the same duties.

• The Snohomish County, Washington Sheriff’s Office has launched a new School Service Unit that will serve over 100 public and private schools spread out over almost 2,000 square miles in unincorporated Snohomish County.

• By a 68-23 vote, the Oklahoma House of Representatives approve legislation that will allow armed teachers in schools.

• Voters in Monadnock, New Hampshire reinstate SRO position at the Monadnock Regional Middle/High School.  The position was cut from the school district budget last year after an SRO worked at the school for 11 years.

 

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Safety Law News for 3/20/13

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• The East Contra Costa, California  school district want to keep its school resource officer program to avoid isolation and long emergency response times of at least 10 minutes.

• The Ohio legislature introduces Senate Bill 74, which would allow school districts to use a property tax levy exclusively to pay for the cost of implementing school resource officer programs.

• The South Dakota legislature has sent a bill to the governor that would authorize “school sentinels” — armed teachers, administrators, security guards or community volunteers.

• Indiana lawmakers are considering legislation that would help fund school resource officers through matching grants.

• Beaufort County, South Carolina has reassigned six deputies from animal control to schools to implement a school resource officer program.

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Safety Law News for 3/15/13

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• Brimfield Township, Ohio school resource officers are proactively taking steps to keep students safer and calmer in an emergency by spearheading a campaign called “Go Bucket.”

• Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot crossed political party lines to announce backing legislation to put school resource officers in every public school in the state.

• The federal appeals court in Atlanta this summer will hear the appeal of Birmingham school resource officers who dispute claims that they violated constitutional rights by using pepper spray on students.

• At a time when school resource officers’ responsibilities are growing, Twin Cities, Minnesota cities are decreasing school resource officers in response to budget cuts.