The Los Alamitos City Council voted to help fund a campus police officer at Los Alamitos High School. The Los Alamitos Unified School District is looking to bring back the School Resource Officer that was once part of campus in part as response to the recent Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newton, Conn.
The Los Alamitos council voted to fund about $95,000 towards the school officer. That cost would amount to about half of the full cost of training, salary and benefits and providing the equipment needed for the officer to do the job. Despite concerns about the long-term cost to the city, Councilman Troy Edgar said it is something the city should do.
“It was the right thing to do,” Edgar said.
In January, LAUSD Board President David Boyer formally asked Los Alamitos Mayor Warren Kusumoto for a commitment of support in funding two school resource officers to patrol the district. Since that time, officials from the city, police department and school district have met to try and work out a plan for funding the officers.
“The purpose of these meetings was to discuss the Board of Education’s desire for two SRO’s and the practical logistics and jurisdiction issues of having two sworn police officers patrol the schools in the district that are spread over two cities and the community of Rossmoor,” the staff report states.
During the meetings the plan was altered to begin setting up funding for one school resource officer that would patrol Los Alamitos High. The current formula calls for the City of Los Alamitos to fund 50 percent of the cost of the officer, while the City of Seal Beach and the school district would each fund 25 percent of the cost.
City Manager Angie Avery told the council that the commitment of the money would allow Los Alamitos Police Chief Todd Mattern to begin recruitment of an officer to fill the roll. The staff report indicated that it might be possible to have the officer in place by the start of the next school year in September. But Chief Mattern told the council that time frame might be unrealistic to have the officer ready to begin work.
However, Edgar said that if the recruitment process begins soon, he believes the officer could be in place by the start of the next school year.
“I feel comfortable that we will be able to meet the September deadline,” Edgar said.
Mattern also noted to the council that during the five year span when the school had a resource officer in place, the program was very effective. Because the school’s population is about 3,200 Los Alamitos Police are often called out for traffic concerns and other concerns. Having an officer on campus would potentially free up patrol officer to focus more on issues in the city.
Councilman Dean Grose asked that Mattern bring back more information how many calls the police respond to at the high school and also more information on the previous resource officer program. The council approved the item by a 4-0 vote. Council woman Gerri Graham-Mejia was absent.