How school police came to be
- 21st Century brought security concerns to local schools
- CASD formed its own police force in 2013
- Today's security, police force is part of school system
Editor's note: This is a companion piece to the story, Taking the role of mentors and protectors.
CHAMBERSBURG - During most of the 20th century the idea of having armed police patrol the halls of schools, even high schools, was not a concept.
In Chambersburg Area School District, if there was trouble in the schools, it was mostly limited to the junior high and high school, and if administrators needed police support, borough and state police responded.
School administrators say that while it worked - mostly because it wasn't an everyday occurrence - the response time was not always the best. While school officials knew they could count on area police to respond as quickly as possible in a crisis, many of the problems dealt with more minor things, or at least not things that involved major crises.
A heightened interest in school security developed nationwide during the mid-to-late 1990s when school shootings began occurring, such as the one at Columbine High School in Colorado.
CASD solved the problem locally by contracting with Chambersburg Police Department to provide a police officer to be stationed at Chambesburg Area Senior High School during the school year. The district paid the officer's salary and benefits during the nine months school was in session and the borough picked up that cost during the summer.
Eventually, the district asked the borough for two officers.
The arrangement worked well for several reasons. CPD did not have to take one of its officers off of duty to respond to school incidents, and the in-school officers developed relationships with students, faculty and administrators that benefited the district.
Even at that, the district had some concerns about the arrangement, especially supervisory issues. The police officers were accountable to borough officials, not school administrators.
Moving into the 21st century, as school shootings became more common, the district's parents worried about school safety, and the district began to look at ways to increase security for its student body.
First the district hired a security director who had extensive experience with building security and alarm system. The district still contracted with the borough, but because of a budget crunch was only able to afford one officer.
When the cost became an ongoing issue, even that one officer was dropped, however, and at about the same time the security officer's employment was terminated because of a personnel issue.
Without a security officer, the district entered into memorandums of understanding with borough and state police, who were on call for incidents of violence. That was necessary because by then the No Child Left Behind act was in effect and schools had to report incidents of violence to the state Department of Education.
When Chambersburg decided to opt out of its contract with the school district, the administration decided to look into forming its own police department, something allowed by state law by that time.
Several societal factors contributed to the decision, including growth in enrollment, a more impoverished district in terms of socio-economic status and a decline in parental supervision.
In January 2013, the district hired retired state trooper Paul Weachter, who is now director of police services. Later they added a second officer, also a retired trooper.
It cost $220,871 to run the district police force that school year (2012-13).
A breakdown of costs for prior years for security are $130,107 in 2009-10, $166,337 in 2010-11 and $198,423 in 2011-12.
Costs have risen each year since the implementation of the police force, but the district has also added additional personnel each year. Last school year, that cost was $230,519. This year $253,249 is budgeted.
Finance Manager Steven Dart said there will likely be another increase next year.
Forming its own police department was not an easy process. The retired troopers had to take the Municipal Police Officers Test in order to be recertified as police officers with full arrest powers. The district solicitor had to complete extensive paperwork and Franklin County's Court of Common Please president judge had to review it and approve the project.
Then the district had to secure an Originating Agency Number, known as an ORI, which provides for the actual creation of the police force on the state level and allows access to all data bases and systems such as Franklin County's 911 stem.
With the paperwork finished and CASD's police department in place, the district bought two factory law enforcement spec Ford Taurus cars using a state bid list used by many municipal police departments to buy their police cruisers.
The department has been operating for three years now, and currently has three fully certified police officers, a full time security officer and about a dozen part-time security personnel who are on call for after-school activities and sporting events.
Vicky Taylor, 717-262-4754