By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Staffing shortages have kept the St. Joseph Police Department from finding as many school officers as in the past, but Police Chief Paul Luster says he plans to add an officer during the next school year.
Luster says the department has been staffing six School Resource Officers in the St. Joseph School District.
“This year I’m excited that we’re adding a seventh back into the mix, which gives us a higher level of coverage for the schools and just to continue to build that partnership,” Luster says during an appearance on KFEQmmunity.
Luster calls the School Resource Officer, or SRO, a really worthwhile program. It has been a stable program. The SROs when Luster arrived in St. Joseph about two years ago remain at the schools.
“They’ve all remained in that unit, assigned to their schools,” Luster says. “When you’re building relationships, it’s tough if it’s a new officer every year. It doesn’t work as well.”
Each public high school has an SRO. Two officers work at the four middle schools. Officers rotate among the elementary schools with one overall supervisor. The officers don’t just walk the school grounds, maintaining safety. They also teach. SROs, according to Luster, teach conflict resolution, engage students in anti-drug discussions, and hold anti-bullying classes.
Yet, their work goes beyond patrolling the hallways and teaching in the classroom.
“So those officers are mentors. They’re not just enforcers,” Luster says. “They’re there in those schools and they build these relationships. They build trust with those students through this their daily, what I see frequently and hear about even more frequently, is they have these daily, positive interactions with the students, with the staff. And so, they’re in the school, building trust, and they’re really in a mentor or coach role.”
Luster says those relationships elevate the program to something special.
“What you’ll find is a lot of the students view that SRO as just this approachable, responsible adult they can talk to about a lot of things.”
At one time, there were nine School Resource Officers in St. Joseph. Luster says his goal is to return to that staffing level, eventually.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ.
