05-25-2013, 03:06 PM
Sheriff says no thanks — again — to Palm Beach County school district on offer to submit proposal to take over police
Updated: 7:36 p.m. Thursday, May 23, 2013 | Posted: 1:23 p.m. Thursday, May 23, 2013
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Editorial: Hear out Sheriff Bradshaw on switching from school police force.
Speakers pan school board plan to merger police force with Sheriff’s Office
Despite no help on school security from legislature, Palm Beach County school district moves forward with own plans to hire 24 officers
School board votes again to seek proposal from sheriff to take over district police department
By Jason Schultz - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has once again rejected the Palm Beach County School Board’s controversial offer to submit a proposal to take over school district policing.
“Any merger comes with associated costs to the Sheriff’s office, costs which the agency is not prepared to absorb at this time,” Bradshaw said in a one-paragraph May 16 letter to the school district made public Thursday. “Due to this fact, the sheriff’s office respectfully declines to submit a proposal for a merger.”
The school board decided this month on a 4-3 vote to ask Bradshaw to submit a proposal to take over the school district’s police department, absorbing its 132 officers into the sheriff’s office.
The May 8 vote stunned School Police Chief Lawrence Leon, who has been on the job less than a year. His department is in the process of hiring and training 24 new officers to beef up its presence on elementary school campuses.
But school board member Karen Brill, who supports the merger idea, said Thursday that she was disappointed in Bradshaw’s decision not to explore a merger of the two forces.
School police officers have approached her about becoming part of the sheriff’s office, Brill said. In a March 2012 non-binding straw poll held by their union, a majority of school police officers voted to merge with the sheriff’s office.
Debra Robinson, board vice chairwoman, has said she has “absolutely no interest” in a sheriff’s merger. Robinson, one of the more vocal opponents of the idea, declined to comment Thursday on Bradshaw’s letter.
In the letter, Bradshaw cited budgetary reasons for his denial. He said the sheriff’s office has submitted its budget for next year to the Palm Beach County Commission, which has begun reviewing it.
The letter was dated one day after a contentious school board meeting, where nearly two dozen residents, students and community leaders spoke out against the idea of merging school police with the sheriff’s office.
Merger opponents said community members have been working with the school district to reduce what studies have shown is a disproportionate number of suspensions of black male students in the school district compared to other groups. They feared outsourcing to the sheriff’s office would hamper efforts to reduce suspensions and that deputies would be too quick to arrest and criminalize students.
West Palm Beach resident Ricky Aiken, one of the residents who opposed a merger, said upon hearing that Bradshaw had rejected the idea: “I think that’s great. I feel like school police are better equipped to handle students.”
Brill said Thursday that she didn’t think the opposition voiced by Aiken and other residents at last week’s meeting affected Bradshaw’s decision.
In 2011, Bradshaw pulled out of a similar exploration of a sheriff’s merger with school police after then-School Police Chief Jim Kelly offered estimates in which he claimed it would be more expensive for the school district in the long run to go with the sheriff’s office.
In his rejection letter, Bradshaw left the door open to a merger, stating: “Hopefully, at some point in the future we can revisit the concept.”
N
Updated: 7:36 p.m. Thursday, May 23, 2013 | Posted: 1:23 p.m. Thursday, May 23, 2013
Email 2Facebook 8Twitter 0ShareThis 10
advertisement
Related
Editorial: Hear out Sheriff Bradshaw on switching from school police force.
Speakers pan school board plan to merger police force with Sheriff’s Office
Despite no help on school security from legislature, Palm Beach County school district moves forward with own plans to hire 24 officers
School board votes again to seek proposal from sheriff to take over district police department
By Jason Schultz - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has once again rejected the Palm Beach County School Board’s controversial offer to submit a proposal to take over school district policing.
“Any merger comes with associated costs to the Sheriff’s office, costs which the agency is not prepared to absorb at this time,” Bradshaw said in a one-paragraph May 16 letter to the school district made public Thursday. “Due to this fact, the sheriff’s office respectfully declines to submit a proposal for a merger.”
The school board decided this month on a 4-3 vote to ask Bradshaw to submit a proposal to take over the school district’s police department, absorbing its 132 officers into the sheriff’s office.
The May 8 vote stunned School Police Chief Lawrence Leon, who has been on the job less than a year. His department is in the process of hiring and training 24 new officers to beef up its presence on elementary school campuses.
But school board member Karen Brill, who supports the merger idea, said Thursday that she was disappointed in Bradshaw’s decision not to explore a merger of the two forces.
School police officers have approached her about becoming part of the sheriff’s office, Brill said. In a March 2012 non-binding straw poll held by their union, a majority of school police officers voted to merge with the sheriff’s office.
Debra Robinson, board vice chairwoman, has said she has “absolutely no interest” in a sheriff’s merger. Robinson, one of the more vocal opponents of the idea, declined to comment Thursday on Bradshaw’s letter.
In the letter, Bradshaw cited budgetary reasons for his denial. He said the sheriff’s office has submitted its budget for next year to the Palm Beach County Commission, which has begun reviewing it.
The letter was dated one day after a contentious school board meeting, where nearly two dozen residents, students and community leaders spoke out against the idea of merging school police with the sheriff’s office.
Merger opponents said community members have been working with the school district to reduce what studies have shown is a disproportionate number of suspensions of black male students in the school district compared to other groups. They feared outsourcing to the sheriff’s office would hamper efforts to reduce suspensions and that deputies would be too quick to arrest and criminalize students.
West Palm Beach resident Ricky Aiken, one of the residents who opposed a merger, said upon hearing that Bradshaw had rejected the idea: “I think that’s great. I feel like school police are better equipped to handle students.”
Brill said Thursday that she didn’t think the opposition voiced by Aiken and other residents at last week’s meeting affected Bradshaw’s decision.
In 2011, Bradshaw pulled out of a similar exploration of a sheriff’s merger with school police after then-School Police Chief Jim Kelly offered estimates in which he claimed it would be more expensive for the school district in the long run to go with the sheriff’s office.
In his rejection letter, Bradshaw left the door open to a merger, stating: “Hopefully, at some point in the future we can revisit the concept.”
N