GREAT FALLS — Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter has proposed a new arrangement that might bring more school resource officers (SROs) to Great Falls Public Schools via a paid reserve program.
“Basically, what it is, is we want to enhance public safety through our schools. So we have the paid reserve program, and basically, last week I did a proposal to the Great Falls Public Schools,” Slaughter explained.
A "paid reserve program" is a part-time law enforcement position that compensates officers for specialized duties. In this situation, the assignment would be to work as SROs within the school district.
According to Slaughter, the program's structure would continue to place the new SROs under GFPD's oversight: "It would be a paid reserve from Cascade County Sheriff's Office, but work under the command and control of the Great Falls Police Department school resource officer supervisor."
The sheriff's office has been asked to finance the initial training expenditures for the trial phase.
That training would be led by GFPD Sergeant Katie Cunningham, who supervises the present SRO unit; she noted, "I supervise, and I have four people who work with me."
According to the idea, existing SROs would train, schedule, and supervise the new cops, with both departments working collaboratively. Slaughter explained that the relationship will allow GFPD to shape the new personnel while reducing the effort on their small team.
“Completely under the supervision of the Great Falls Police Department but essentially be paid for by the sheriff's office. What's beneficial for us on that aspect is, is that we get to bring that person into our program and train them how we work, bring them up to speed on our protocols.”
But why introduce new SROs now? Cunningham stated that the department's workload has exceeded the capacity of its current personnel.
"We tend to fall short because we just get overtaxed, oversaturated. Last year, we had over 830 calls just for the SRO department. So we were busy day in and day out."
She stated that Great Falls High School's central location puts it close to recent violent incidents.
“The stabbing and the shootings that have happened recently, they're 4 or 5 blocks away. So having two officers at the school to make sure this building is secure so that that threat doesn't make it inside...”
Cunningham believes that additional officers could assist in preventing outside threats from reaching the school.
The school board has sent Sheriff Slaughter follow-up questions and will make a decision on the idea after he responds.
