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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Campos

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/21/08

HB

SHORT TITLE Las Vegas Schools Police Officers

SB 288

ANALYST Propst

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$500.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 288, Making an Appropriation for the Las Vegas Police Department to Provide

School Resource Officers in Las Vegas Public Schools, appropriates $500.0 thousand from the

general fund to DFA for the purpose of providing Las Vegas Police Department school resource

officers in the Las Vegas City public school district and the West Las Vegas public school

district.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $500.0 thousand contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall revert to the

general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

PED notes that:

o

Currently, Las Vegas Robertson High School in Las Vegas City has two security officers but

no school resource officers (SROs).

Senate Bill 288 – Page

2

o

SRO programs have been in schools since the 1960s. Although the placement of law

enforcement officers in schools has grown tremendously over the past decade, the move to do

so appears to have increased dramatically following the school shootings of the late 1990s

(School security.org, 2008).

o

SROs should be officers who voluntarily wish to work with children in schools. School and

law enforcement officials should be sure that SROs receive specialized training for working

with children and in school settings. SRO programs should include formal agreements

between school districts and law enforcement agencies regarding officer selection, funding,

training, supervision, evaluation and associated issues (School security.org, 2008).

o

Collaboration between law enforcement officers and schools is an important step in increasing

school safety. The concept stems from the practice of community policing.

o

The roles and responsibilities of the school resource officer vary from school to school. A

diverse range of duties can be incorporated into the SRO job description. Some functions

served by the SRO include: law enforcement officer, public safety specialist, community

liaison and problem solver, law-related educator, and positive role model (Center for the

Study and Prevention of Violence, 2008).

o

The school resource officer needs to be a key player in all of the components of safe school

planning (Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, 2008).

o

In addition to freeing patrol officers from responding to 911 calls from the schools, SROs

prevent problems that would have resulted in an emergency call, thereby reducing the burden

on patrol officers even more. Often, SROs accomplish this because students realize that with

an officer stationed in the school, they likely will be arrested if they break the law. In

addition, many students tell SROs when trouble is brewing, and the officers then take steps to

control it (Finn, 2006).

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