The Pettis County Sheriff’s Department applied for a grant to add two new school resource officers in the county, whose salaries would be funded with federal stimulus money for their first three years.

The COPS Hiring Recovery Program, a competitive grant funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, offers $248,410 over three years for law enforcement agencies to hire new officers, rehire officers who have been laid off or hold on to those who are currently scheduled to be laid off as a result of local budget reductions.

The sheriff’s department applied for the grant this week, proposing to use the stimulus money to hire two new school resource officers.

Sheriff Kevin Bond said one of the new resource officers would join Deputy John Cline in serving Sedalia schools, with the primary duties of the new officer focused at the new high school. The second new officer would split his time among Dresden, Green Ridge, La Monte, Smithton and Northwest schools.

Unlike many federal grants that decrease the amount of funding provided during each year of the grant, the CHRP grant would fund 100 percent of the new officers’ salaries and benefits for the next three years.

Sedalia School District 200 would still be required to cover transportation and other costs required for the new position, Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt said. After the first three years the district would also have to pay 83 percent of the new officer’s salary, the same amount it pays for Cline, and the sheriff’s office would cover the rest.

While Cline spends the majority of his time at Smith-Cotton High School, he is usually at Sedalia Middle School two days a week and responds to any reports out of the district’s elementary schools.

As the school resource officer, Cline said his primary responsibility is to be a law enforcement officer, but he also splits time as a guest instructor and informal counselor at city schools.

“A lot of kids feel much more comfortable talking to me as an SRO than they would talking to an officer on patrol,” Cline said.

Smith-Cotton Assistant Principal Todd Fraley said the program has been well-received by students, faculty and school administrators.

Cline’s presence in the school has contributed to improving the climate, instilling a “more safe-feeling atmosphere,” Fraley said.

“I think it has been seen by all parties involved as an invaluable resource,” Fraley said. “Some students may have a negative outlook on law enforcement, and (Cline) is here to show them a different side to police officers, a human side.”

Intelligence gathered at the school has helped with cases that would have otherwise remained unsolved, so having an officer working with students has benefited investigations into crimes occurring both on and off Sedalia campuses, Cline said.

“It has been very positive. It’s really a win-win situation for everybody,” Cline said.

The application process for the CHRP grant was fairly quick, especially for a federal grant, Bond said. The department was informed that stimulus dollars would be available on March 26, just a few weeks before the April 14 application deadline.

Since the stimulus money must be allocated by July 1, any officers hired as a result of the grant must be selected before that time. Bond expects to hear whether the department will receive the grant in a matter of weeks.

“We have been working pretty hard on this for the last month, month and a half,” Bond said. “I expect we’re going to be hearing something by probably no later than the end of May.”

Up to $1 billion in grant funding will be available to law enforcement agencies across the country through the grant, but based on the number of applications received, the COPS Office anticipates the process to be highly competitive, according to a U.S. Justice Department press release.

Although Bond said he has “no idea what our chances are of receiving” the grant, he said the department will pursue adding the positions regardless of the outcome.

“We would absolutely look for other ways to fund additional school resource officers. This has been on the long-range plans for the Sheriff’s Office for a while,” Bond said.

The school district has left a security guard position open until the status of the grant is determined, Pollitt said. If the sheriff’s department does not receive the stimulus grant, the district will determine whether to add a school resource officer, a security guard or a combination of those positions.

The sheriff’s department also submitted its application for the Justice Assistance Grant from the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance this week. Departments must re-apply for the grant every three years but, unlike the CHRP grant, the JAG grant is not awarded competitively.
The JAG grant provides $111,427 to local law enforcement agencies, with the Sedalia Police Department receiving $95,582 and the Pettis County Sheriff’s Department set to take in $15,945. Both agencies intend to use the funding to outfit patrol cars with digital cameras to replace the VHS recorders that are currently used.