JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Jay Nixon signed a bill permitting schools in Missouri to commission local police as school resource officers for safety on Thursday, one day before taking action on a plethora of other bills on the final day for his office to act on legislation.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Shelia Solon, R-Blue Springs, is based largely on a bill offered in 2009 by her predecessor. This was ultimately carved down to only allow for the school resource officers in Blue Springs School District. Solon, who was on Blue Springs City Council at the time of the bill’s passage, said she had concerns at first but that the program had worked out very well.
“Safety is first and foremost on a lot of people’s minds,” Solon said. “Since the tragedy at Sandy Hook, a lot of people would like us to take steps as lawmakers to ensure our schools can be safer.”
The bill requires a memorandum of understanding between participating law enforcement departments and school districts, and allows districts to hire and pay the officers themselves if they choose, rather than sharing the burden of salary with the local governing municipality. Solon said this was key because if some municipalities are unable to afford paying for school resource officers, districts can shoulder the full burden of their salary, if they have the room in their budget.
“This doesn’t force anything on anyone, and I’m sure some districts either cannot afford this, or won’t want to do this,” Solon said. “But if a school or a community decides they want to take this step and bring in these officers, now they have that ability, and they can make that determination.”
The bill had support from sheriffs and police chiefs throughout the state, and Solon said it was likely the only bill in recent memory with support from the National Education Association and the National Rifle Association.
“I sat with every group who opposed the bill back in 2009 and we worked on language we could all agree on,” Solon said. “We compromised and we worked things out and I think ultimately that’s why it got passed this year.”
Blue Springs currently employs 17 full time school resource officers district wide at a cost of about $75,000 per officer, per year, according to information Solon provided The Missouri Times.
The final version of HB 152 was passed by the House and Senate with more than an veto-proof, bipartisan majority.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
