Sheriff won't fund Shelby's Safe Schools Initiative in current form

Citing legal reasons, Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry said his office would not participate in the county’s recently announced Safe Schools Initiative.

The Initiative, in the version submitted to 280 Living, is a proposal that describes a partnership among multiple Shelby County stakeholders. If approved by all partners, it would provide funding for additional law enforcement personnel in county schools.

Through email, Shelby County Manager Alex Dudchock said the Initiative was introduced to the Shelby County Commission in February as a plan to put one school resource officer in each of nine school zones in the county.

At maximum funding, the Initiative would collect $1.14 million and could fund 19 full-time officers or approximately 35 retired officers for nine months of service. Fund allocation in the plan is based on student population across the school zones, each of which is represented in the Initiative by a municipal law enforcement agency. Funding is divided among the Commission, the Shelby BOE, individual municipalities, the Alabaster and Hoover City School Systems and the Sheriff’s Office.

On June 4, Curry indicated his department’s portion is not available.

“I, along with all Shelby County Sheriff’s employees, remain committed to the safety and welfare of our children at all times but specifically while in school,” Curry said in a release. “The Safe Schools Initiative is a good plan, and I support it. But the legal opinion is that I cannot use pistol permit funds in this manner.”

The sheriff’s portion is identified at $123,500. It was suggested in the plan for that amount to come from the Sheriff’s Fund, also known as the Pistol Fund, named as such because it’s largely comprised of money from the purchase of pistol permits.

Curry said the Pistol Fund was established by a State of Alabama legislative act and is regulated by State auditors. After receiving a copy of the Initiative, he said he contacted the State to ask if he was permitted to participate specifically as it was written.

He said they told him he wasn’t.

According to Curry, the Initiative asks he use these discretionary funds to pay individual municipalities for the hiring of officers he would not empower or manage. Dudchock confirmed this was the case.

“Each respective municipal police chief will be responsible for any law enforcement officers used in school facilities in their respective jurisdictions in coordination with the school systems,” Dudchock said.

Curry also cited that the annual budget for the pistol fund over the past five years is an average of $298,000, and to remove $123,000 from it – approximately 41 percent – would diminish the department’s ability to fund other programs including drug canines, DARE, the Citizens Academy and firearms training. In addition, 25 percent of the fund is already earmarked.

“Not all monies in that account are available,” Curry said in the release. “It has to be for ‘law enforcement purposes,’ but approximately 25 percent has an additional restriction of use for jail/inmate purposes.”

However, Dudchock said the source of the funding has not been specifically dictated. 

“Any funds at the control and disposal of all entities identified as partners can and should be considered,” Dudchock said. “In a true partnership, each entity contributes what they are able to contribute from whatever resources that are available to them.”

“The plan provides additional funds to assist with school security,” he added. “The county manager is cutting two operating budgets to make available additional funds for school security throughout the county.”

Dudchock said in a prepared statement he believes it was both “appropriate and reasonable” for the Shelby County School System to ask Curry to consider partnering with funds on the school security initiative.

“Each entity has to independently decide if they want to partner and provide resources,” he said. “The additional funds, along with the existing funding related to public safety budgets, would be used for implementing school security plans and actions.”

Calls placed to Curry were not returned, and Shelby County Superintendent Dr. Randy Fuller and Assistant Superintendent Lewis Brooks were unavailable when contacted.

Click here to read the sheriff’s release regarding the Safe Schools Initiative.