STAFFORD — Three Stafford County elementary schools will have armed protection officers beginning the fall.
The Stafford Board of Supervisors voted to fund a low-cost pilot program that will place three new part-time sworn sheriff’s deputies and their full-time supervisor, a deputy sergeant, at the county’s sheriff’s office, will work as part of a $481,000 program during the 2018-19 school year.
Salary and training costs are included in the cost estimate provided by Sheriff David Decatur to the Board of Supervisors. Though the employees will work part-time hours, the sheriff said he wanted to extend healthcare benefits, but not benefits enjoyed by his full-time staff under the Virginia Retirement System.
Officials may choose to fund more school protection officers in the following year at all 17 elementary schools. In the meantime, it’s unclear which schools will receive the new officers in the fall.
Supervisors chose to fund this option over a $607,000 option that would have funded six new sworn deputies and the trapping that come with hiring new police officers, including providing training, uniforms, and patrol cars.
The job of the new school protection officers will be:
- Staff security checkpoints
- Monitor security cameras
- Safety inspections and audits
- Make recommendations to improve campus security
- Patrol school grounds
The new officers come after the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida earlier this year. Afterward, Decatur formed a school safety taskforce where the job description for the new school protection officers was formulated.
Prince William County leaders also aim to place armed security in schools, but they’re going to about it a bit differently. Under the plan, five new school protection officers will be employees of the school division, not the county’s police department.
Hiring preference would be given to retired law enforcement officers should the county’s School Board choose to implement the funds for the program provided by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.
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