Editorial: School police hard to keep

Saturday, July 29, 2006 | 7:55 a.m.

The Clark County School District is feeling the pinch, not only from a teacher shortage but also from a shortage of campus police officers.

According to a recent story by the Las Vegas Sun, the district's police force is 32 officers short of the 175 positions for which it is budgeted. And the reason is fairly simple: money.

School police receive the same academy training as other local officers, but they earn less. The starting annual salary for a school officer is $38,986. Henderson Police rookies earn $51,400 and Metro's are paid $46,035.

As a result, the district's department is "losing people all over the place," a human resources official told the Sun. Officers may be taken out of patrol or off investigations in order to staff schools, but that is a makeshift solution at best.

The district should require that officers work a minimum of two years for the district upon graduating from the academy, or else pay back what it cost to train them. The district also could increase its number of school security monitors. These monitors, who earn about $28,000 annually, deal with student discipline and are trained in defense tactics and gang and drug awareness.

Eventually, however, the Nevada Legislature must increase the amount of money Clark County receives for its school police. The safety of the district's 300,000 students is at stake.

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