Schools may get officers

• By JASON BROWN
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Aug 5, 2008 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LAFAYETTE — The City-Parish Council today will consider whether to expand a program that would put additional school resource officers in each Lafayette Parish middle and high school this year.

The council is expected to approve the measure, which would increase the number of officers by eight to a total of 16 full-time school resource officers within middle and high schools.  All high schools would have full-time officers while such middle schools as L.J. Alleman, Edgar Martin, Paul Breaux and N.P. Moss would have officers on a part-time basis.

Sgt. Mark Francis, a spokesman for the Lafayette Police Department, said the eight officers selected for the program were hand-picked and are some of the finest the Lafayette Police Department has to offer.  “These are probably the top 5 percent of the Police Department,” Francis told Lemoine during the meeting.

The deal would require the Lafayette Parish School Board to reimburse the city $40,000 per officer including any overtime accrued.

Local municipalities also have agreed to provide officers to schools within their respective areas, Francis said.

The program has been a pilot initiative for two years.

On Monday, the school resource officers and many of the school crossing guards met with Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft and Superintendent Burnell Lemoine outside of the Police Department. Craft said the program is vital to the department’s crime prevention mission. The officers assigned to the schools also will serve as mentors and teachers to the students while ensuring public safety within the schools, he said.

“They become basically a part of the faculty there,” Craft said.

Last year, school resource officers were placed at Comeaux High, Lafayette High, Northside High, Lafayette Middle and N.P. Moss Middle.

During the school year, the officers made 318 arrests for fights, thefts and drugs, according to information from the Lafayette Police Department. Lemoine said the level of awareness they bring to the campuses helps to prevent the possibility of a worst-case scenario.

Lemoine said the initiative was among the first items that came up as officials developed the budget for this school year. The need for it was never questioned, he said.

“In this day and age, it’s the right thing to do,” Lemoine said.

Four of Lafayette Police Department’s school resource officers are returning from previous stints while the other four are new to the program.