Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps has been given permission to proceed with working out agreements with four school districts to provide school resource officers provided there is no cost to the county.
One officer would be shared between Raccoon and Selmaville Grade Schools and another between South Central and Patoka School Districts. Cripps went to a recent Superintendent’s meeting and offered to provide the service to all the schools in the county provided the districts pay for it.
“Jefferson County paid for I think 8 or 10 SRO because they have a cannabis facility down there and all that money goes there. I don’t have that kind of income coming in so I explained to the schools I don’t have anything in my budget. So if the schools are interested in SRO and you want to pay for that out of your safety tax I’d be happy to work out getting a deputy into their schools. But they would bare the cost of them working in those schools.”
Cripps says part of his platform when running for sheriff was to provide services to the youth and said an honor given to Salem Community High School SRO Craig Vieira showed what the officers can mean to students.
“You can make those kids say hey I’m the most influential person in those kids lives, that speaks volumes to me. That tells me SRO’s aren’t just about keeping schools safe, but also building report with the kids and being there for whatever they need in various ways.”
Cripps says the school resource officers could be used to fill overtime and some shifts when school is not in session, but his goal would be to provide them training during the summer months.
Cripps feels the earliest the program could begin would be December if acceptable agreements can be worked out.
