Palmer City Council approves SRO officer

PALMER — The Palmer City Council unanimously approved a School Resource Officer for the City of Palmer. The City will pay 25% of the cost and the School District 75%. MSBSD has had a SRO at Wasilla High for five years. Of the five schools within the City of Palmer, 15% of MSBSD’s student population is represented among Palmer High, Palmer Junior Middle, Academy Charter, Sherrod and Swanson Elementary.

The officer would perform regular police duties during the summer months and may be used outside the schools during winter and spring breaks. PPD has yet to determine who will fill the position. The SRO will not be confined to PHS, as he/she will be able to travel to other schools within Palmer and respond to greater incidents outside the school. The SRO is only supposed to handle situations that would arise at the school that would already require police involvement, such as drugs or violence, but can also find truant students or perform welfare checks if the officer believes there is danger off campus.

“The thing that it’s most successful at is prevention and building positive relationships with law enforcement and so we’re really looking forward to having that on site presence and also that immediacy in the event of a crisis,” said MSBSD Superintendent Dr. Monica Goyette.

12% of all MSBSD students attend school in the City of Palmer at either PHS, PJMS, ACS, Sherrod or Swanson Elementaries, making up 2,486 students within City limits. MSBSD Safety and Emergency Preparedness Manager Steve Paine spoke in support of the action memoranda during public comment, detailing his four pros of the SRO. Paine said that student safety, relationship building, Police force multiplication, and further training were all positives.

“Each officer learns that building a little bit better,” said Paine.

“The biggest benefit is prevention that a positive presence of law enforcement can be a motivator to deter crime from even occurring,” said Dr. Goyette following Paine.

Council members were in unanimous support of the SRO. Questions of clarification were minimal and most spoke in support of the added safety to MSBSD schools within COP.

“I’ve personally worked in schools with SRO’s and I’ve seen them have a real positive impact on the school, and great positive effects on students as well,” said Councilman Pete LaFrance.

The council heard a Palmer Police area staffing and cost study presented in City Manager Nathan Wallace’s report. Discussion of adding a police force to the MSB prompted the study and the council discussed the pros and cons of annexation of the ‘Palmer Service Area’ from Trunk Road to Palmer Fishhook and the Parks/Glenn interchange. Discussion of possible annexation to relieve pressure on AST to patrol the area of 21 square miles brought about concerns of how MSBSD would offer SRO’s to schools outside of municipalities, of which there are many.

“We are going to survey our community on a variety of things on a variety of safety and security measures that they would like to see and look to them to help,” said Dr. Goyette.

The council also approved the 2018 City of Palmer standard specifications for construction, an abnormally large document that passed unanimously.

Mayor Edna DeVries also brought up the possibility of the use of private Police forces in the understaffed Palmer Service Area, referring to HB 394 sponsored by Representative Colleen Sullivan-Leonard, ‘An Act relating to the Alaska Police Standards Council; relating to the definition of 'peace officer'; and relating to private police organizations’ The bill was sent to the State Affairs Committee on Mar 21.

Overall, the Council breezed through a short but impactful meeting. The officer assigned to PHS will likely be an existing PPD officer and a new recruit will have to fill in his spot on patrol. The WHS SRO responded to eight incidents in his first year.

“I think it’s excellent, excellent, excellent! With the school shootings it’s sort of brought to the forefront that now is the time to do it. So I’m glad the school district has stepped up to the plate and found the money and is willing to do it. I think it’s a win win for everybody,” said DeVries.