Committee Discusses Safety of Rockford Public School Students

Rockford, IL - Trust was a word used often at Monday nights Rockford Public School Board Operations Committee meeting. "I think the trust factor is that they see the same officer every day and they get to build a relationship," says Dr. Dennis Thompson, Superintendent of Rockford Public Schools. "It starts out with, ‘Hi who are you? I`m Officer Smith. And as I get to know him better I know that this might be someone I can go to if I need help, even if its an issue not dealing directly with school." Thompson is talking about building trust between students and police officers. He believes that reducing by half the number of off-duty police officers in the schools and replacing them with more full-time officers will prevent gang violence and drug use. "To have permanently assigned officers, that will be there and get to know what the problems in a particular school are, is going to be helpful avoiding some of the things that have come up at the present time," says Jay Nellis, a board member on the Operations Committee. Under the latest security agreement between the city and the Rockford School District, eight full-time police officers work at the schools, costing the district $485,030 a year. Thompson wants to add four more, an increase of $206,360. Those additions would increase the number of full-time police officers to two at each high school and one at each middle school. It would eliminate officers at elementary schools. Thompson wants to begin moving officers into the schools by the beginning of the school year, but Police Chief Chet Epperson says next year would be more realistic. Epperson says the department needs to begin addressing its own staffing issues before moving current officers to the schools. "If we`re going to give them additional officers, we have to wait until we hire those officers, and then get those officers trained and up and running on their own," says Epperson. "Then we can relieve some additional manpower from our department. That takes about a year to a year-and-a-half to happen." The next hiring period for the Rockford Police Department begins next month. Thompson plans to present his security plan to the full board next week.