ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - School Resource Officers are being pulled from all Roanoke County Middle Schools. The police chief says this is because there are not enough officers to carry out daily tasks.
The Roanoke County Police Department is short around 30 officers for daily patrol duties.
“With the course of 2020, we have had 28 police officers leave our department, which is about double the normal rate of annual attrition,” Howard Hall, Police Chief of the Roanoke County Police Department, said.
He explained these officers left for reasons such as retirement and other personal reasons.
Hall said those leaving do not include officers away for illness or in field training. Plus, there is a fluctuating number of officers who have to quarantine when exposed to the coronavirus.
“And ultimately, that impacts our ability to carry out the functions that are the responsibility of the police department, so we have had to make significant cuts in some of the areas that aren’t required,” Hall said.
That includes Student Resource Officers. Before the second school semester, the police department is pulling the 4 SROs from the middle schools in the county.
“We’re disappointed, but we also know they’re going to be there for us when we need them,” Rhonda Stegall, Executive Director of Administration for Roanoke County Public Schools, said.
The school system has a plan to make sure all students are safe.
“The plan right now is our high school SROs will help cover the middle schools. We still have our sheriff deputies who are covering our elementary schools, and that will remain intact . . . As staff allows, they’re also going to ask the deputies to help cover the middle schools as needed,” Stegall explained.
The school district sent this message to parents of one school:
“The Roanoke County Police Department currently is experiencing a significant shortage of police officers. The police department has informed us that, for the time being, the School Resource Officer (SRO) assigned to WBMS has been reassigned to other police-related duties. The WBHS SRO will be covering WBMS during this temporary re-assignment. In addition, other Roanoke County Police officers and Roanoke County Sheriff’s deputies will be checking in at various times to provide an additional law enforcement presence. If parents have any concerns, please contact Mr. Kageals.”
Hall says the department hasn’t had to make these cuts before. He assures the change will be temporary.
“Unfortunately, the shortage is now impacting those specialized functions that we want to provide and think are important, but we just have to prioritize at this point,” Hall said.
He said it will take a considerable amount of time for their department to grow, since training can take months. Plus, they’re seeing fewer folks want to go into this career field this year due to low pay and the negative narrative surrounding law enforcement after the death of George Floyd.
Copyright 2020 WDBJ. All rights reserved.
"middle" - Google News
December 19, 2020 at 05:33AM
https://ift.tt/3mz1akm
Roanoke County Police pulling resource officers from middle schools - WDBJ
"middle" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MY042F
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment