Resource officer assigned to school district

Don’t be alarmed if you drop off your kids at school after the holidays and spot a Sheriff’s Office vehicle in the parking lot. Sergeant Ed Robinson will not be on campus for a crisis or crime, but as the new School Resource Officer.

In his new role, for ten hours each week, Robinson will provide security support to the district as he builds ties and relationships with staff and students across the county.

“Ed is coming on as a resource officer, not a police officer. He is a resource for the district,” stresses Superintendent Mark Broderson, Crook County School District. “He’s not there to be a policeman, he’s not there to catch kids, he’s not there to enforce rules.”

Robinson’s help will be invaluable for such things as assisting with the radios in each building, says the superintendent. Meanwhile, as a law enforcement professional, Robinson is more likely to see ways in which security might be improved.

“They see things through a different lens. We’re there to take care of and educate kids, they see everything that can be a threat and how can things go wrong,” he says.

“In theory, the resource officer will become a familiar face and the relationship there will open up some communication and kids will be willing to go to him to ask questions and share concerns. It gives them another avenue.”

While this is undoubtedly a useful resource for the schools, it is also a way for the Crook County Sheriff’s Office to increase its familiarity with the school buildings and routines.

“They will more in tune with how our schools operate, the layout of the buildings, those kinds of things – especially the newer buildings, like the Sundance Elementary,” says Broderson.

“He’s probably going to spend more time at the secondaries than he is the elementaries, just because little kids don’t have as much going on that is of interest to a law enforcement officer.”

Robinson will continue to promote and lead ALICE trainings for the school, teaching kids how to protect themselves during a crisis situation. This, says Broderson, will help to foster the relationship between law enforcement and the schools in terms of handling a crisis.

“There will be more communication, because we’ll be seeing [law enforcement] on a regular basis. We hardly ever see them now, which isn’t a bad thing because we’ve only seen them when there are problems, but now there’s going to be somebody on campus,” he says.

Robinson has championed ALICE training across the county over the last few years, but it’s always going to be an ongoing exercise, says Broderson, due to turnover of staff and movement of kids as they join the school system and transfer to new buildings.

“We’re always having new faces that we need to bring up to speed. I think originally we were hoping to get a training in each building every year,” he says.

School staff will also now be able to discuss ALICE-related concerns, protocols and ideas with Robinson all year round, rather than concentrating all their questions into the hours and minutes before a drill.

Robinson will not be aiming to create a routine in terms of his presence in each of the buildings, says Broderson. Though it’s likely he will be visible during lunch and recess times to be available to the kids should they need him, keeping his routine unpredictable could one day have an additional benefit: it could act as a deterrent.

“If a kid is thinking about doing something naughty, they usually say there are warning signs, if you know what they are. Having Ed around, maybe the kids would talk to him or maybe he would notice something because he looks through that different lens,” says the superintendent.

On the other hand, Broderson is keen to stress that the local police departments will still maintain authority in cases of criminal activity, such as possession of tobacco or marijuana. Robinson will not be involved in these matters and will not be patrolling the halls as a police officer.

“We still have our rules and we will still operate as we have in the past and if there is something that we generally call law enforcement on, we will continue to operate as we have,” he says.

“We’re not going to be looking for different things to what we are now. If a kid gets in trouble, we’re still going to follow the same protocol we have in the past.”

Sheriff Jeff Hodge is equally keen to stress that Robinson will not be an enforcer.

“We don’t want that, because it will impede trying to build relationships,” says the sheriff.

“Obviously, if there’s a serious issue going on, he’ll be able to take care of it. He’ll also help with the radios, with security, with protocol, and…he’ll be able to coordinate the ALICE training better.”

The resource officer will be funded through the Crook County Sheriff’s Office at no cost to the district. Broderson expresses his gratitude for this, pointing out that the district is not having to pull funds from other programs, “which is great for us”.

Hodge says he has long felt that a resource officer would be helpful, but has also known that the district would be unable to afford a full-time member of staff for that purpose.

“I think one of the most precious things we have in our lives is our kids,” he says. “We’re always planning against big hurricanes in Wyoming and whatever other mass emergency, but with the shootings and the mental health state of the country right now, it seems like we’re not as well off as we used to be and I think we maybe need to shift gears and start doing what we can for the kids.”

When the sheriff suggested Robinson for the Homeland Security role of Emergency Management Coordinator earlier this year, it hadn’t occurred to him how closely that role could mesh with that of a resource officer. As he began to ponder on the notion, he realized that ALICE training, community security and preparedness for emergencies all involve the schools – the overlap was more than enough for the two roles to fit snugly together.

“The opportunity came up here when we were talking about putting Homeland Security into our office. It needed to be a full-time position, so I proposed to make it 30 hours on the Homeland Security and ten hours would still be on the Sheriff’s Office side,” he explains.

“The commissioners agreed, so during the school year I’m going to have him rotate through the schools for ten hours of the week and help with that communication gap between the schools and us. Hopefully, in the future, there will be more funding comes available that we can provide more hours, but the commissioners were gracious enough to give me those ten.”

So close is the relationship between Robinson’s roles, in fact, that some of the hours he will spend in the schools will actually count as Homeland Security time; for example, during ALICE drills. He may be visible for more than ten hours per week for this reason, says Hodge.

In the modern world, the needs of schools – and the people inside them – have changed, he continues. We are now experiencing more violence, shootings and suicides and it’s important to keep up with the times and for the Sheriff’s Office to provide whatever support it can.

“We do a fire drill every year, though it’s been a long time since anybody was killed by a fire in a school. We’re just now starting to do active shooter drills – we did the first one in Sundance last fall – and it went very well and all the schools are wanting to get involved,” he says.

“I’m sure we will still do the fire drills, but we need to shift gears because this stuff has been long going on in the past and we just keep doing what we’re doing because that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Sponsoring a resource officer is a good opportunity for the Sheriff’s Office as a whole, Hodge adds. Traditionally, his peace officers have not been as involved with the kids as the local police departments, so he hopes to strengthen the overall relationship between the county’s youth and the men and women who watch over their safety.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the new resource office, Hodge encourages you to contact the Sheriff’s Office.