CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Officials from the City of Charleston and the Charleston County School District met Thursday to discuss a resolution that could put school resource officers in all elementary schools.
CCSD officials say all schools should have a student resource officer. During the Public Safety Committee meeting, they moved one step closer to making that happen.
Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds presented a plan that would put a total of 40 officers in place to protect schools.
Currently, only middle schools and high schools have permanent officers. Elementary schools are protected by a group of strategically placed officers called the SSRT.
The new $4 million plan would add 23 SRO positions for CCSD. About 17 of them would go to elementary schools.
Reynolds says the duties at elementary schools are different but necessary.
“They’re able to be there before, during and after school," Reynolds says. "They help with traffic and with education. And of course we’re hiring officers and the more that we can get them interacting with younger ages and have positive interactions with the police is always a good thing. The challenge that we have though is what’s the best model? What’s the best deployment. We can’t be everywhere all the time.”
He also says both parties are working to have this implemented by the beginning of next school year.
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