06-14-2006, 04:31 PM
Police Want To Stay In Schools
By STEPHEN THOMPSON The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jun 13, 2006
There's a turf war brewing at many of Pinellas County's middle and high schools, but it's not groups of students facing off against each another.
It's Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats, with Pinellas School Superintendent Clayton Wilcox, pitted against city police chiefs.
Wilcox is considering removing city police officers from schools and replacing them with Coats' sheriff's deputies. But the police chiefs don't want their officers to leave.
With the same law enforcement agency providing school resource officers on every campus, there would be uniformity in policy, especially with the use of electric stun guns on students, said Nancy Zambito, the school system's deputy superintendent.
Police chiefs don't buy Zambito's rationale. Largo Police Chief Lester Aradi called it ludicrous. And the chiefs do not think the deputies will do a better job than their officers.
The chiefs have made their objections known to Wilcox and Zambito, and some have vowed to fight the replacements.
"I told her it would be a junkyard dogfight," Tarpon Springs Police Chief Mark LeCouris said. "They will pry the SRO [school resource officer] stuff up here from our cold, dead hands."
Once St. Petersburg got wind of the proposal, Mayor Rick Baker and Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis III drove to Wilcox's office and told him that under no circumstances would they allow such a thing to happen.
Such a strong stance on what appears to be a simple bureaucratic switch might seem odd in Hillsborough County, where assigning school resource officers is strictly geographical.
City police officers work in the Tampa middle and high schools, a Temple Terrace officer works in the sole middle school there, and Hillsborough deputies have the rest.
But in Pinellas, which has 24 municipalities and more than a half-dozen police agencies, Coats publicly has advocated the consolidation of police agencies under his command, similar to Metro-Dade in South Florida.
Some cities, especially St. Petersburg, bristle at such an arrangement because they do not think the sheriff has as keen an appreciation of the nuances in their communities, especially when it comes to minorities, as they do.
Some chiefs wonder whether the school proposal is simply a way to provide Coats a toehold for an eventual takeover in the cities where he doesn't provide services.
"It's back on that track of Metro-Pinellas," Chief LeCouris said.
Coats denied the suggestion, saying the school system came to him, not the other way around.
"I'm just trying to accommodate them if that's their wish to go forward with this," Coats said.
The matter is expected to be brought before the school board at a workshop today.
Coats also wonders why some chiefs are so vociferous in their objections when the cities in the past have relinquished some school positions because of budget constraints.
In Clearwater, where Police Chief Sid Klein's staff has drawn up a two-page list as to why their officers should remain in Countryside and Clearwater high schools, sheriff's deputies already are in middle schools.
Pinellas Park police officers may be assigned to Pinellas Park High, but deputies work in the two middle schools in that city. And in Tarpon Springs, deputies are posted at Tarpon Springs High School.
"If these schools are so important to them, why don't they do all the schools in their communities?" Coats said.
The chiefs have reasons they want to stay. For one, they say they are better able to keep track of problem children as they go back and forth from school to their homes.
The departments also are invested heavily in their schools beyond the resource officer program, chiefs say.
Clearwater estimated the two high schools would lose access to four city police department programs if the sheriff's office took over - including a Hispanic outreach program to deal with the city's burgeoning Mexican population and a mental health therapist who counsels children exposed to violence.
Pinellas Park police teach at the criminal justice magnet program at Pinellas Park High School. "We consider them our kids," Police Chief Dorene Thomas said.
And dozens of St. Petersburg officers mentor struggling students in their spare time as part of an initiative by Mayor Baker, police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.
Still, Largo Chief Aradi noted the argument for city police officers has a weakness in that Pinellas' school choice program means students can end up at whatever school they want, regardless of where they live.
In Largo, for instance, nearly half of the high school students do not live in the city.
But as for the contention that the sheriff's office would bring uniform policies on such issues as Taser use, Aradi said, "I don't buy it." He said it would take him and his colleagues about an hour to get together and hammer out a uniform policy to be used in the schools.
City police departments in Pinellas County have officers in the following schools:
Clearwater Police Department: Countryside High and Clearwater High
Largo Police Department: Largo High and Largo Middle
Pinellas Park Police Department: Pinellas Park High
St. Petersburg Police Department: St. Petersburg High, Northeast High, Gibbs High, Lakewood High, Riviera Middle, Meadowlawn Middle, Southside Fundamental Middle, John Hopkins Middle, Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle; Bay Point Middle, Azalea Middle, Tyrone Middle
Tarpon Springs Police Department: Tarpon Springs Middle
By STEPHEN THOMPSON The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jun 13, 2006
There's a turf war brewing at many of Pinellas County's middle and high schools, but it's not groups of students facing off against each another.
It's Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats, with Pinellas School Superintendent Clayton Wilcox, pitted against city police chiefs.
Wilcox is considering removing city police officers from schools and replacing them with Coats' sheriff's deputies. But the police chiefs don't want their officers to leave.
With the same law enforcement agency providing school resource officers on every campus, there would be uniformity in policy, especially with the use of electric stun guns on students, said Nancy Zambito, the school system's deputy superintendent.
Police chiefs don't buy Zambito's rationale. Largo Police Chief Lester Aradi called it ludicrous. And the chiefs do not think the deputies will do a better job than their officers.
The chiefs have made their objections known to Wilcox and Zambito, and some have vowed to fight the replacements.
"I told her it would be a junkyard dogfight," Tarpon Springs Police Chief Mark LeCouris said. "They will pry the SRO [school resource officer] stuff up here from our cold, dead hands."
Once St. Petersburg got wind of the proposal, Mayor Rick Baker and Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis III drove to Wilcox's office and told him that under no circumstances would they allow such a thing to happen.
Such a strong stance on what appears to be a simple bureaucratic switch might seem odd in Hillsborough County, where assigning school resource officers is strictly geographical.
City police officers work in the Tampa middle and high schools, a Temple Terrace officer works in the sole middle school there, and Hillsborough deputies have the rest.
But in Pinellas, which has 24 municipalities and more than a half-dozen police agencies, Coats publicly has advocated the consolidation of police agencies under his command, similar to Metro-Dade in South Florida.
Some cities, especially St. Petersburg, bristle at such an arrangement because they do not think the sheriff has as keen an appreciation of the nuances in their communities, especially when it comes to minorities, as they do.
Some chiefs wonder whether the school proposal is simply a way to provide Coats a toehold for an eventual takeover in the cities where he doesn't provide services.
"It's back on that track of Metro-Pinellas," Chief LeCouris said.
Coats denied the suggestion, saying the school system came to him, not the other way around.
"I'm just trying to accommodate them if that's their wish to go forward with this," Coats said.
The matter is expected to be brought before the school board at a workshop today.
Coats also wonders why some chiefs are so vociferous in their objections when the cities in the past have relinquished some school positions because of budget constraints.
In Clearwater, where Police Chief Sid Klein's staff has drawn up a two-page list as to why their officers should remain in Countryside and Clearwater high schools, sheriff's deputies already are in middle schools.
Pinellas Park police officers may be assigned to Pinellas Park High, but deputies work in the two middle schools in that city. And in Tarpon Springs, deputies are posted at Tarpon Springs High School.
"If these schools are so important to them, why don't they do all the schools in their communities?" Coats said.
The chiefs have reasons they want to stay. For one, they say they are better able to keep track of problem children as they go back and forth from school to their homes.
The departments also are invested heavily in their schools beyond the resource officer program, chiefs say.
Clearwater estimated the two high schools would lose access to four city police department programs if the sheriff's office took over - including a Hispanic outreach program to deal with the city's burgeoning Mexican population and a mental health therapist who counsels children exposed to violence.
Pinellas Park police teach at the criminal justice magnet program at Pinellas Park High School. "We consider them our kids," Police Chief Dorene Thomas said.
And dozens of St. Petersburg officers mentor struggling students in their spare time as part of an initiative by Mayor Baker, police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.
Still, Largo Chief Aradi noted the argument for city police officers has a weakness in that Pinellas' school choice program means students can end up at whatever school they want, regardless of where they live.
In Largo, for instance, nearly half of the high school students do not live in the city.
But as for the contention that the sheriff's office would bring uniform policies on such issues as Taser use, Aradi said, "I don't buy it." He said it would take him and his colleagues about an hour to get together and hammer out a uniform policy to be used in the schools.
City police departments in Pinellas County have officers in the following schools:
Clearwater Police Department: Countryside High and Clearwater High
Largo Police Department: Largo High and Largo Middle
Pinellas Park Police Department: Pinellas Park High
St. Petersburg Police Department: St. Petersburg High, Northeast High, Gibbs High, Lakewood High, Riviera Middle, Meadowlawn Middle, Southside Fundamental Middle, John Hopkins Middle, Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle; Bay Point Middle, Azalea Middle, Tyrone Middle
Tarpon Springs Police Department: Tarpon Springs Middle