TexasCHLforum.com

I'm suprised to see it hasn't already been mentioned, but what of a Peace Officer's DUTY to act in the presence of crime? I think the intentions are noble, but the peace officer route may not be the best. It is not a simple avenue to provide additional armed presence in a school setting, it opens up the proverbial can of worms.

The school resource officer (a term I made up for the peace officer whose responsibility it is to secure the school, not a normal patrol LEO) is walking down the hall when he/ she observes an exchange of an unidentified green leafy substance between two students behind the gym. Now what? Didn't this peace officer just observe potential criminal activity and now has a duty to investigate? A different officer is now walking rounds outside a school and observes two middle school aged students near playground equipment, during class time, and smoking cigarattes? Isn't this a combination of truancy and minor in posession? In both of these cases the LEO is bound to address the infractions. While this could be as simple as warning and releasing subjects, etc., it will certainly take away from the ability of the officer to do their assigned job- secure the school from armed whack jobs, especially if there is a detention/ arrest involved with all the ensuing paperwork chain of custody, etc.

Again, intentions being noble, people being willing to spend thousands of their own $$ and a year of their time to become certified as a peace officer is great. But we also must realize that achieving that milestone is only a beginning. Most full time officers then undergo a lengthy field training period of on the job instruction as well as take advanced and on going training (such as on how to address an active shooter) before they are vetted and allowed to patrol on their own. This just doesn't seem feasible. It would seem that the same people willing to volunteer might be better off trying to go the private security route, gaining their commissioned (armed officer) status and perhaps even personal protection officer certs, then providing SECURITY services at said schools. For those that don't feel this is enough, perhaps petitioning DPS to develop a new curriculum for this special type of security officer could be in order down the road. The cost and time requirements to the volunteers would be far less while some of the legal gray areas could be cleared up. Just a thought.