For City Council Meeting [June 11, 2019]
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Sean Grayson, Interim City Administrator
FROM: Mark P. Kling, Chief of Police
Title
Request City Council to Approve an Agreement between the Rialto Unified School District and the City of Rialto for three (3) School Resource Officers.
(ACTION)
Body
BACKGROUND:
The Rialto Police Department over the last several years has provided one (1) School Resource Officer (SRO), which is stationed within the Rialto Unified School District (RUSD). In January 2015, Council agreed to increase the SRO's assigned to the School District by two (2) additional officers funded through the COPS hiring grant. One (1) additional officer would be funded through mutual partnership with the City and RUSD.
The COPS hiring grant has come to an end however the need remains to maintain three (3) SRO's for law enforcement responsibilities arising on and in the vicinity of any school campus in the City's jurisdiction. Based on this need, the three (3) officers will be funded through mutual partnership with the City and RUSD.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION:
Currently, the Rialto Police Department is responsible for the safety and security of all residents, businesses, and citizenry within the confines of city boundaries. This includes all schools and their attendees. The calls for services to the police department from school related incidents, civil and criminal, necessitated the School Resource Officer Program. The SRO acts as a liaison between the school district and the police department and handles all calls related to alleviating the burden on daily patrol staff to respond to every incident occurring on school grounds. The agreement between the police department and the school district was never intended as a dollar for dollar match as there are too many variables involved to calculate an exact cost for related services the department would provide even without a SRO.
SRO's engage in law enforc...
Click here for full text