Hoover council adds two school resource officers in wake of Florida school massacre

The Hoover City Council tonight voted to hire two additional part-time school resource officers in light of last week’s massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 students and adults dead.

The addition will give Hoover 11 full-time police officers and 17 part-time officers in the city’s schools, City Administrator Allan Rice said.

It also will ensure that every Hoover school now has a police officer dedicated to it, plus a little cushion to help fill in gaps when an officer needs to be away from his or her school, Rice said.

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said the City Council has been very good about adding resources to schools as needed, particularly with regard to school resource officers.

Hoover started its school resource officer program in 1994 and increased the number of officers to four after the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999. More officers were added over the years, and in January 2013, after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, before taking his own life, the Hoover council added $100,000 to its budget to keep a police officer in every Hoover elementary school through the end of that school year.

At some point, that funding was not renewed, but in September of last year, three school resource officer positions were added, covering almost every school. But there still wasn’t 100 percent coverage, Brocato said.

“In light of the fact of what’s gone on in the last week, we want to walk away feeling comfortable that we’ve done everything that we can in terms of providing SROs in our schools, and this was just a little bit of a hurdle that we needed to jump to do that," Brocato said.

The two additional part-time positions will cost the city about $35,000 each for salaries and benefits over the course of a year, Chief Financial Officer Melinda Lopez said. It brings the total cost of the school resource officer program to about $2.1 million per year, she said.

Rice said he thinks the city can pay for the new officers with money that had been allocated for overtime expenses because city staff have done a good job of limiting overtime costs.

Rice noted that Niche.com ranked Hoover City Schools as having the safest schools in Alabama and the fifth safest schools in the country, but he said city officials can’t use that accolade as a reason not to improve. This would have been recommended in the 2019 budget anyway, he said.

Councilman Curt Posey said council members have always promised to be good partners with the school system, and he thinks the mid-year budget amendment is well worthwhile.

Police Chief Nick Derzis said Hoover police and school officials do everything they can to keep Hoover’s kids safe. He noted that most school districts across the nation do not have police officers in elementary schools, only in middle and high schools.

Derzis said that since last week’s school shooting in Florida left 17 students and teachers dead, he and his school resource officers have met with school system administrators to make sure everyone is on the same page about school safety plans. They will continue to review those plans to see if any revisions need to be made, he said.

Councilman Derrick Murphy said he would like the City Council to have a joint work session again soon with the school board to discuss things such as school safety.

“We pray that that day doesn’t come, but we want to make sure we’re prepared every step of the way to take care of our kids,” Murphy said.