REGIONAL- Last week Gov. Tim Walz signed a strongly bipartisan bill designed to fix legislation approved last year that prompted dozens of law enforcement agencies across the state to pull student resource officers (SROs) out of schools across the state.
The prohibitions against the restraints in last year’s bill raised concerns about legal liability among numerous groups representing law enforcement officers and agencies, leading to about 40 of them suspending their SRO programs last August as the new school year began. That included the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, which suspended its program on the advice of the county attorney’s office.
The new bill exempts SROs from those new regulations, while still holding them accountable for other laws regarding police conduct. SROs will have to receive additional training in how to de-escalate volatile situations and how to respond to mental health crises, and officers may not be used by schools for student disciplinary purposes.
St. Louis County Undersheriff Jason Akerson said on Tuesday that the department was pleased that the Legislature acted to resolve the concerns.
“The change in the law and the improvements that were made this session through the Legislature were certainly welcome,” Akerson said. “I applaud a lot of our local legislators who did a lot of meetings and research to find out what the issues were and bring that back this year. That was great to see.”
While the sheriff’s office pulled its SROs from ISD 2142 schools in August, deputies were still frequently present in the schools and at sporting events, an effort intended to preserve the connection between the schools and sheriff’s office.
“We encouraged the road guys when and where and if they were available to please stop in either at the school or sporting events,” Akerson said. “From our perspective, and I think the school district would agree, we have a great relationship between the two entities, and we certainly want to keep that going and work hand in hand with them.”
Positive relationships have been the primary focus of the SRO program, Akerson said.
“The whole SRO program is to build relationships,” he said. “People know we’re there to help. At times we’re going to have to take some kind of action with different situations, but by and large the whole goal is to build relationships and be a positive influence on the students and staff and be there to help.”
Next steps
It won’t be a simple thing to reboot the SRO program, as a number of factors will have to be considered for their potential impact on a new program.
At the moment, Akerson said the sheriff’s office is waiting on the Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training to develop a model policy for SRO programs, as dictated in the new law. The department will have to assess past practices against the model policy to determine what changes may be necessary and how they would accommodate them.
And while the program would have been staffed back in August, Akerson said the sheriff’s office currently has some vacancies that could affect a reboot.
“We are short some staff, so we’re going to have to look at that,” he said. “One, two, three months down the road you can lose people fast. So, once we get the model policy, we’re going to have to touch base with the school board and the school district to see where they’re at, then see where we are at staffing-wise and gauge it from there. We’re committed to the program, but we’re just kind of waiting on this last piece.”
ISD 2142 Superintendent Reggie Engebritson said Tuesday that it would be nice to restart the program but said it would be up to the sheriff’s office to take the lead.
“We are still in limbo because it’s up to the sheriff’s department,” she said. “It would be up to Chief (Gordon) Ramsay to decide if the language meets what they’re looking for.”
An additional obstacle could be the district’s ability to fund its share of the program costs. The district recently cut 11 non-tenured teaching positions to stay within its projected 2024-25 budget.
“We’d have to see what their budget funding is, and we need to see if we can even afford it,” Engebritson said.
Akerson expressed hope that the sheriff’s office will be able to restore the program.
“At the end of the day, it’s about providing a safe environment for the kids and the staff at the school,” he said. “In my eyes, if we’re able to do that, that’s a great thing.”