School resource officers deter threats and school shootings | Guest Opinion

I am a retired law enforcement officer, and I have a child in the Richland School District. I am currently employed with a company teaching school safety and Active Shooter Response to school staff and students.

I fully support our law enforcement officers. I support fully funding law enforcement and keeping armed school resource officers in the Richland School District.

I do not support what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis and I am not aware of any law enforcement officers supporting the arresting officers involved in this tragedy. The officers involved were fired and arrested. My hope is they are convicted and spend many years in prison. Justice is going to be served for the Floyd family.

Many times, officers are thrust into situations they are not trained to handle. On any given day, an officer enforces the law, consoles a grieving parent, negotiates with a suicidal person, encounters a mentally ill person, investigates a domestic violence assault and sometimes must make a life or death decision in milliseconds. The list of potential issues an officer is expected to resolve is endless.

Law enforcement officers require a comprehensive and diverse set of training to successfully serve the public. Defunding law enforcement would only hinder this need for on-going training.

The brutal backlash against law enforcement is not justified. The FBI keeps statistical data reported to them from police agencies across the nation, and the data helps put current events into perspective.

In 2018, approximately 686,000 full time police officers arrested 10.3 million people and answered over 50 million calls for service. Firearms were intentionally discharged during 0.4% of the arrests.

A 2018 study published in the Journal of Acute Care Surgery analyzed more than 114,000 criminal arrests made across three midsize police departments. The study found 99% of arrests were carried out without the use of physical force by police. The study also found that in 98% of the cases in which physical force was used, the suspects sustained no or mild injury.

The FBI statistics for 2019 show over seven police officers a month were killed in the line of duty. In 2020, the number of officers killed is currently 103. Over 400 police officers have been killed or injured during the George Floyd protests.

The heroes of law enforcement continue to serve our communities and keep us safe. What do they receive in return? Threats to their families, calls to defund the police, their pensions taken and no more Lego toys depicting police officers.

A petition to remove school resource officers from the Richland School District has been started. When did society decide law enforcement officers are the enemy? Who answers the 911 call if police have been defunded, or so demoralized that they resign?

The petition to remove school resource officers from the Richland School District should be a very concerning issue for anyone that cares about the safety of our staff and students. Removing school resource officers only further creates the impression law enforcement is the problem. One common comment made about removing school resource officers is, “The police are only minutes away. We can call them anytime we need them.”

Nationwide, if an armed intruder enters the school, a person is shot every 14 to 20 seconds.

In 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. was attacked by an active shooter. It is important to remember the actual shooting event lasted only 91 seconds. The entire event lasted six minutes and 34 people were killed or injured. Law enforcement officers responding from outside the school have an average response time of three to seven minutes. The only sure way to immediately intervene and deter an active shooter is with an armed response from within the school.

Yes, I fully support our law enforcement officers.

Our law enforcement families need community support now more than ever. I am honored to have served with them. Thank you to the men and women of The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, The Pasco Police Department, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, The Richland Police Department, The Kennewick Police Department, The West Richland Police Department, The Prosser Police Department, and our corrections officers and dispatchers.

This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 1:29 PM with the headline "School resource officers deter threats and school shootings | Guest Opinion."