BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — Across the state, some school districts have their own police forces. It’s a concept that Broward County Schools could soon be looking into.
In late July, the Broward County School Board brought up a serious question, “If we have explored our own police force, what would that look like?”
According to the district’s Chief of Police, Jaimie Alberti, past boards had brought up the concept in years past after seeing school district police forces like the ones in Miami Dade and Palm Beach County.
Back in March, the board was presented with four options.
One of them was a hybrid model comprised of school resource officers and officers from what would be a newly created school district police force. The other option was a Broward Schools District Police Force.
According to the research, the starting cost to implement it would be roughly 65 million dollars.
The board back then passed on the idea, but Board Member Torey Alston asked the board to explore it once again.
“It is time,” he shared. “Clearly, we understand the value of having our own police force. As the son of a deceased SRO, I think there is great value in it, and I think I want to be the first, that it’s past time for us to explore it.”
But not everyone is keen on it.
School Board Member Allen Zeman shared, “Educators are not police officers. Police officers are not educators. We are really trying to put a square hole in a round peg here."
He furthered. “We have to make sure we are spending all of our dollars on our core mission which is really to educate students.”
Zeman has other concerns, believing a school district police force won’t be as responsive as the model that’s currently in place. That model involves 200 school resource offers contracted by 13 different municipalities.
Zeman also emphasizes to get the program off the ground would take about three years and a hefty paycheck upfront, “You don’t just put out a job announcement, and 450 officers show up. So, it’s going to take a good deal of time, but I’m pretty rock solid against it.”
But those who have worked for a school district force say as long as it’s built on a good foundation, created with the right officers and training that understand the specialty that is working in a school system, a Broward County Schools Force could have its advantages.
Curtis Lavarello shared his insight, “We stop a lot of school shootings because the officers in the school become mentors to the kids, and they build this trust with young people, and then that kid has an adult that they trust, and they are comfortable in sharing information.”
He furthered. “The fact that you get a little more consistency when it’s a school district police department, you don’t have officers rotating in and out as much, in school district, as you would in a city or county.”
Lavarello said typically, a school district will recruit officers already working in local municipalities.
But the position at a school will sometimes have more monetary incentive.
In counties like Lee, the pay is around 50 thousand dollars for a school resource officer. In Orange County, it’s around 60 thousand dollars.
But in Broward, SROs can get up to 103 thousand dollars.
“Now,” explained Lavarello, “the position has really professionalized.”
The Broward County School Board will now be workshopping this idea, getting ideas from the community and insight from the Sheriff’s Office and their partner municipalities.
The next step would then be town halls and discussion at board meetings to see if, in fact, a school district force is wanted.
