Campus cops join beat cops to make schools safer

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 | 2 a.m.

School Police officers assigned to Basic High School in Henderson are joining forces with the Henderson Police Department to better track and respond to juvenile crime.

The logic: Troublesome students may be as well known to the local police department as to school cops, and by working in tandem both agencies will be in better positions to intervene.

Beginning today, the two School Police officers assigned to Basic High School will attend Henderson Police’s daily briefings, sit in on training sessions and carry radios linking them to the municipal agency. Calls for assistance from the high school, as well as Mahlon B. Brown Junior High School and four elementary schools, will be routed to Henderson Police, which will dispatch officers.

“This forces our folks and their folks to communicate more,” said Henderson Police Chief Richard Perkins, who helped design the pilot program. “We have good rapport now, but it’s a little bit different when you sit in the same meetings and see each other every day.”

In 1989, after a spate of campus-related violence, the state Legislature allowed the Clark County School District to convert its security services into a full-fledged police department. School Police are sworn peace officers, authorized to make arrests and carry guns. However, their jurisdiction is limited to campuses, and the most serious felonies are turned over to the appropriate municipal law enforcement agency for investigation.

There have been several attempts at interagency partnerships in recent years, with mixed results. But this is the first time School Police officers will be dispatched by an outside agency.

The students getting into trouble on campus are often the same teenagers picked up by police after hours and on weekends, whether for juvenile mischief and vandalism or crimes as serious as burglary and assault, Perkins said.

It’s also not uncommon for a fight on Monday morning to be the result of a dispute that began over the weekend, and for an in-school dispute to turn into an off-campus brawl.

The pilot program will allow the two agencies “to more closely compare notes and work in a more coordinated fashion,” Perkins said.

“Even when they go to school they’re still our kids. We don’t turn our backs on them just because we don’t have jurisdiction when they’re in the classroom.”

Henderson Police has no interest in taking over School Police’s duties, Perkins said.

“They have a skill set that’s unique to the challenges of working with kids that my guys don’t necessarily have,” Perkins said. “This is about Henderson Police wanting to help provide a more safe environment for students to learn.”

The district struggles with that goal as students continue to bring weapons to school, and last year the district beefed up security at Friday night football games after a series of gun-related incidents. Basic High School was chosen for its geographic alignment, not because campus safety issues have sparked a need for increased police presence, said Principal Susan Segal.

School Police Sgt. Phil Gervasi, one of the pilot program’s supervisors, said the two Basic officers remain district employees. They will be dispatched only to school-related calls, Gervasi said.

There were some initial concerns that the pilot program would violate the School Police contract, which prohibits officers from being supervised by an outside agency. But Gervasi said the chain of command hasn’t been usurped.

“There will be no conflicting orders,” said Gervasi, who is also president of the union representing the district’s School Police.

The pilot program comes while School Police is in flux. Hector Garcia resigned as chief in August and the search for his replacement continues, although the field of about 50 initial applicants has been narrowed to five finalists. Gervasi said the department is short about 25 officers from its full roster of 145, and uniforms remain in short supply because of problems with a new vendor. Additionally, an internal audit of the department, including expenditures approved by Garcia, remains incomplete. The district’s auditors had difficulty locating copies of some documents that were supposed to be retained by the department, and other files had to be reconstructed using the hard drives of office computers. Auditors have also questioned an outstanding bill for a professional development workshop conducted by associates of Garcia.