School police overtime costs decrease

Monday, March 21, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

Overtime costs for school police are down 17 percent for the first six months of the academic year, a drop Clark County School District officials credited to an initiative that shifted some duties to specially trained campus security monitors.

From Sept. 1 through the end of February, total school police overtime costs were $643,465, a decline of 17 percent from the same period a year ago. Costs for athletic event overtime stood at $339,101, down 21 percent from the first six months of the prior academic year.

Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations for the Clark County School District, said the decrease in overtime costs is encouraging but he hopes the percentage will dip even further in the coming months.

"We're moving in the right direction but there is still a long way to go," Rulffes said. "The dollars we save can be redirected to student achievement initiatives."

In May, following an inquiry from the Sun, district officials released documents showing $1.37 million in school police overtime had been paid in 2003. The bulk of the costs were associated with covering athletic events. Several officers worked enough overtime to nearly double their base salaries, ranging from $36,000 to $64,400. And four patrol sergeants logged enough extra hours to overtake the district's school police chief as the department's top wage-earner.

In response to the growing overtime costs, district officials decided to beef up responsibilities for campus monitors. The change was intended to give police officers more time for patrols and investigations.

At the time campus monitors directed student traffic between classes and wrote up students for minor disciplinary matters, such as violations of the district's dress code. The new security monitors continue those activities but also work at extra-curricular events, operating metal detectors and providing crowd control.

While school police officers go through the same academy training as the police forces for the cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas, campus security monitors are not sworn peace officers. They do not carry guns and are not authorized to investigate criminal activity or make arrests.

The district currently has about 280 security monitors assigned to high schools and middle schools. Each of the district's 35 comprehensive high schools has at least one school police officer who is also assigned to the campus.

In boosting the requirements for security monitors the district raised the pay scale, as well, to $13.64 per hour from $9.93 per hour. The security monitors receive special training in defensive tactics as well as drug and gang awareness, said Jeff Hafen, director of support staff training and development for the district.

With police officers in short supply nationwide, it made sense for the district to take the steps it did last spring, Hafen said.

"We have a security force that works hand in glove with our police officers," Hafen said.

But Phil Gervasi, president of the Clark County School Police Officers Association, said he believes student safety has been compromised by the new initiative. He said incidences of violence at athletic events have increased, but he could not supply specific data to that effect. District officials said crime statistics are tallied by the type of incident and not the location.

"They don't have enough campus monitors willing to work the (athletic) games and it's a safety hazard to the students, the staff and the parents," said Gervasi, whose organization represents the district's 145 officers. "You don't have a controlled situation anymore, you have a haphazard situation at best."

Gervasi said the risk of not having on-campus police officers played out Wednesday at an after-hours track meet hosted by Del Sol High School. With only parents, administrators and coaches supervising the event, a shouting match between students from Del Sol and Silverado High School erupted in the stands and spilled into the parking lot.

"There were 200 to 300 people milling around by the time we (school police) arrived," Gervasi said. "The school had the option of requesting officers to cover the event from the start and they chose not to."

A spokesman for Metro Police confirmed a 911 call had been received but said when officers responded to the school the crowd had dispersed. Darnell Couthen, spokesman for Clark County School District Police, said officers responded to the high school Wednesday evening but did not write an incident report and left the matter up to the discretion of the school's administrators.

Rulffes said he's planning to analyze the security monitor program to gauge its effectiveness, and he hasn't ruled out making a recommendation to hire more staff, including additional police officers.

"It might be more cost-effective to hire additional staff to cover certain activities than to pay out overtime," Rulffes said.