The Great Falls Public Schools board voted unanimously during their Nov. 24 meeting to approve the concept of a reserve deputy being added to the existing school resource officer program but won’t approve implementation until interlocal agreements are drafted and approved.
Superintendent Heather Hoyer said that the proposal was meant to enhance the work of the five existing SROs, which are all under the Great Falls Police Department, by providing an extra set of hands.
Under the proposal, the reserve deputy would be paid by the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office but would be under the direct supervision of GFPD and would follow the same hiring process as existing SROs.
The plan is to start with one reserve deputy with a background in law enforcement who would work part time on a schedule coordinated by Sgt. Katie Cunningham, who oversees the SRO program.
The move to approve the concept includes a requirement for quarterly board updates and the execution of the appropriate agreements between the city, county and school district.
The county has not yet posted the reserve deputy job description, which requires County Commission review to set the compensation, under a new law that went into effect Oct. 1.
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Craig Duff, school board member, said that he fully supported the concept, but wanted to see more information on the agreements and details of how the arrangement would work before greenlighting it.
Amie Thompson, school board member, asked Cunningham how comfortable she was with the arrangement as she shared Duff’s concerns.
Thompson said the existing SRO program has worked well and the board knows they need help, but they want to ensure the culture remains the same since it can be tricky with one agency funding the deputy position who reports to another agency.
Cunningham said she initially had some of the same concerns but having ultimate authority over the program gives her confidence as does being involved in selecting the person for the job using the same process they use for GFPD SROs.
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She said they already have a mutual aid agreement for the joint SWAT team and know how both agencies work.
The benefit is they get help but don’t have to pay for it.
Kim Skornogoski, board member, said that the board submitted written questions to the law enforcement agencies but there was one she didn’t feel she had an answer to concerning any limitations on reserve deputies that don’t exist for the existing SROs.
She said that coming from the nonprofit world, they often hear they should use volunteers or paid interns for tasks and instead it becomes more work for staff.
Cunningham said she’d thought about that and had blunt conversations with Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter that they’re looking for someone who can do the same work the SROs do, to include paperwork, counseling, education and police work, not just be available in case of emergencies.
She said the SRO culture within GFPS is different than the county schools but since GFPD is involved in the hiring process for the reserve deputy, she’s not terribly concerned that they won’t get what they’re looking for.
Slaughter asked the board not to forget that he’d served as a GFPD officer for 17 years becoming sheriff and was currently working with GFPD to align policies between the agencies.
There are cultural differences, he said, but the public expects them to behave in a similar manner and he felt they’d done a lot of that groundwork.
He said CCSO and GFPD already collaborate on the combined regional SWAT team, which is under GFPD command and includes eight CCSO members; as well as the regional drug task force, which is also led by GFPD with CCSO personnel assigned.
“We’ve done this before,” Slaughter said and they’d ensure all the roles and responsibilities were delineated through an interlocal agreement.
His budget is fixed so that would set the reserve deputy’s available hours, but when those hours are used would be set by Cunningham as best suits the SROs needs and the person wouldn’t be pulled away for other duties, Slaughter said.
“School safety is our priority in Cascade County,” he said.
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Skornogoski said she understood that the first year of the program was being funded through a $50,000 donation from Calumet and asked what they could expect for future years funding since they didn’t want staff to go through this process without confirmed funding.
Slaughter said it was a budget priority for him so he was re-allocating funding in next year’s CCSO budget to fund the program.
Bill Bronson, school board member, moved to approved the concept of the program, on a pilot basis, directing staff to use the following requirements and guidelines for development of that concept:
- final approval is subject to preparation and approval of, at a minimum, interlocal agreements between the city and county, and where necessary CCSO, as well as a written memorandum of understanding with GFPS;
- final approval requires recognition and reflection of the existing program’s culture;
- any individual recruited, screened and hired must be consistent with current SRO hiring practices; must be completely sworn and under the direct supervision of GFPD SRO staff, to include school/activity assignment, training and evaluation;
- any individual hired must be able to meet all requirements of active GFPD officers, including screenings and background checks
- there must be an unambiguous statement addressing how any liabilities associated with the program would be handled, including indemnification and hold harmless provisions where appropriate;
- assuming approval of all appropriate agreements, the pilot program must include quarterly updates and evaluations to the board to monitor progress, assess effectiveness and make decisions regarding continuation, modification or termination.
Bronson said that it became apparent to him after discussions with law enforcement in recent weeks that they could only approve the concept during the Nov. 24 meeting and only its implementation once actual agreements were in place, as exist for the current SRO program.
He said it wasn’t fair to GFPS staff or other agencies if the board failed to provide the specific direction needed in this instance and that from what he was hearing, all parties involved seemed to agree that these details needed to be worked out and in place.
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Bronson said he appreciated Slaughter’s offer of assistance and was confident they’d have draft documents ready in the coming weeks.
He said he knew some community members had expressed concern over the proposal, but that hopefully everyone could agree they have a responsibility to ensure school safety and any reasonable proposal and effort of cooperation among law enforcement was “something that we should wholeheartedly embrace.”
There was no public comment on the proposal during the Nov. 24 meeting.
