Valley Police Chief responds to no police officers on PSUSD campuses

Palm Springs Unified School District said there will continue to be security officers, however, School Resource Officers will not be there for the start of the school year. They may be added as the school year goes on.

The district held a public board meeting about the issue on July 27:

"Consequently, our program is not working at its full capacity. Okay, and our resource officers are looked at as a punitive tool versus a wrap-around support, and a wrap-around support as any support- as a school we can grow that student," said PSUSD's executive security director Levaughn Smart. "So over the last year, we have been evaluating the school resource officer program. We've had both pros and cons, stakeholders from both sides. And we're trying to look at it, evaluate, and assess exactly what it is we have."

The school district said it wants to make sure it's moving in the right direction with its SRO program if it will continue to have it.

"We had those that had their own concerns, we had those parents, and some students and different community members that had concerns of that school to prison pipeline, the lack of training that the officers had, and how they were actually interacting with the kids on each campus," Smart said.

Smart said the SRO's are a part of the team that keeps students safe. However, he adds that safety is everyone's concern in the district. While SRO's aren't on campus, the district said it will continue to have security officers.

"We will start training, robust training for staff, within the coming months, those things are coming along, coming in the pipeline. So all those things are there, we got to make sure, but their kids are just as safe," said Smart.

The district is taking into consideration both sides of the issue: those who support having SRO's on campus and those who oppose it. Some parents want the money used for SRO's to be invested elsewhere.

"Minority students tend to be afraid of having contact with police officers, simply because police officers represent someone who possibly could have took their brother, their sister their mother away," said PSUSD parent Charlie Ervin. "So what we're thinking is having more teachers and more administration that look like our students on campus, so that's more African American, or more Hispanic, minority groups in general, teachers and administration."

News Channel 3 reached out to the different police departments the district partnered with. We only received a response from the Sheriff's Department:

 "The PSUSD has made the move to cut funding for the School Resource Officers within their District. Local law enforcement agencies as well as the Sheriff’s Department had to remove their assigned School Resource Officers. This move is troubling as it directly impacts the safety of our students. What is more troubling is the anti-police sentiment in which this decision has been made by PSUSD.  The primary duty of the School Resource Officers is to keep the students, faculty, and staff safe as well as support positive interaction between law enforcement and the youth on campus. Removing these School Resource Officers will hinder safety of our school campuses as well as affect our youth’s ability to have positive interactions and relationships with law enforcement." 

Thursday night Cathedral City police chief George Crum released this statement.

The Cathedral City Police Department’s School Resource Officer (SRO) program has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the Palm Springs Unified School District that dates back to 2000. Over the last two decades, Cathedral City Police Department has had a police officer assigned to meet the needs of students, staff, and visitors. An SRO is highly trained to assess and handle a multitude of issues that happen at school campuses.  The Cathedral City Police Department SRO training includes a 40-hour P.O.S.T. approved SRO certification course, a 40-hour advanced SRO certification course through NASRO (National Association of School Resource Officers), 16 hours of crisis intervention training and 16 hours of training in Tactical Response to School/Community Violence. The officers selected for an SRO position with the Cathedral City Police Department are highly trained and capable of keeping our students, staff, and visitors safe on campus.  Our SROs handle a multitude of functions at schools, including providing a safe learning environment on campus, traffic issues, and pedestrian safety in and around schools. While law enforcement is one facet of an SRO duties, they also work as problem-solvers, ambassadors, mentors, and examples of public service. The SRO is an invaluable resource for students seeking advice. They assist school counselors, school nurses, and speak to parents regarding issues occurring with their child or children. In general, the SRO has daily contact with the campus community while building positive relationships and helping students reach their full potential. The recent decision by the PSUSD to “defund” their School Resource Officer program is deeply concerning as it correlates to the safety of our local schools and the welfare of the students and staff in attendance. As your police chief with over 33 years of law enforcement experience, I oppose this decision by the school district to unilaterally “defund” the SRO program at school campuses before first ensuring proper safeguards are put in place and without fully engaging the district’s law enforcement partners to offer comments and suggestions. The school district did not reach out to their law enforcement stakeholders in a timely manner before making this potentially grave decision. There should be nothing more important to our community than protecting our children, who historically tend to be among the most vulnerable people in our community. In a recent study published by the FBI in May 2021, California leads the nation in active shooter incidents from 2000-2019. In this study, schools ranked third in the nation as likely targets of an active shooter. The presence of an SRO on a campus strongly mitigates potential harm to our children as they are highly trained officers ready and willing to actively protect our children and staff if the most unfortunate situation occurs, a potential deadly breach of security. Mayor Raymond Gregory, the entire Cathedral City Council and I are committed to keeping Cathedral City a safe city for residents, businesses, and visitors. We will continue to be dedicated to the safety and security of this city, regardless of the school district’s decision. I implore the school district to reconsider their decision to remove the School Resource Officer from Cathedral City High School’s campus and instead initiate a dialogue with the local law enforcement community on how we can improve the current system and move forward as a unified team for the welfare of all.

The school district is asking parents, students, and staff to contact the district at info@psusd.us to share their stance on the matter. The district said it will be taking everything into consideration as they decide the future of the SRO program.