The Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputies recently placed in elementary schools are some of the agency’s most skilled officers.
Their new mission — protecting the school district’s youngest students —– requires wisdom and patience that come from several years on the job, Sheriff Larry Ashley said.
“The last thing you want to do is hire a 24- or 25-year-old who just came out of the academy and put them in a school,” he said. “We wanted experienced officers.”
Ashley made the decision in the days following the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. He acknowledged there is no increased risk to local students, but said the move was the right one.
“What it’s done is it’s made us wake up,” Ashley said. “How many school shootings does it take before we realize our kids are at risk? … I don’t think we can say the world is the same now.”
The 26 deputies placed in the elementary schools were pulled from several units — beach and marine patrol, civil processing, court security, detention and booking, street crimes and traffic enforcement.
The beach and marine patrol, street crimes and traffic enforcement units were depleted and will remain inactive until new deputies are hired.
“It’s prioritizing our resources,” Ashley said. “If I’ve got to choose between whether to enforce traffic laws or protect our kids at elementary schools, then I’m going to protect our kids at elementary schools.”
With the addition of the deputies, the school district now has armed law enforcement officers in each of its 40 schools.
“They’re all very professional and have taken to the task,” Ashley said. “They’re all very motivated.”
The cost of keeping all of those deputies in place through the end of the school year is an estimated $1.1 million.
To maintain that level of security annually, the Sheriff’s Office needs $3.5 million. That’s about $85,000 to $90,000 per deputy for everything from support costs, communications, uniforms, equipment and training.
Ashley has asked taxpayers to cover the most immediate bill of $1.1 million. He has requested half from county commissioners and half from the School Board.
“Basically I’m here with hat in hand and asking (local officials) not to make me choose between the services we provide, because we’re going to have school resource officers,” he said.
School Board members will vote on the funding Monday night. The county commissioners are expected to vote Jan. 22.
Commissioner Dave Parisot has questioned whether the county should have to cover the cost to replenish Ashley’s force.
“I’m not sure he needs to have a marine unit,” Parisot said. “If he felt he could pull those deputies out of the courthouse, then maybe he didn’t need that many. … I just want us to step back. I don’t want us to have a knee-jerk reaction.”
Parisot said the decision to spend $1.1 million in the short term and even more money on an annual basis should be “well thought out” and backed up by “scientific” feedback from the public.
He also said paying for the school resource officers is primarily the school district’s responsibility, not the county’s.
“I’m not convinced in my mind that the Board of County Commissioners should even be funding half of the school resource officers,” he said.
Until the Sheriff’s Office gets the money it has requested, certain divisions of the department will operate with reduced personnel.
“I don’t want to start hiring people to fill these positions and then not have the funding for them,” Ashley said.
After only a few weeks, the strain on the department isn’t great, but Ashley expects that to change.
“As time passes, we’re really going to feel it,” he said.
The time will come “when I say I can’t do funeral escorts because I don’t have the manpower because I have them in schools or I can’t do parades,” Ashley said. “It may take a week to get your process served. Or it may take an hour to clear security at the courthouse when you’re standing in line because there are just one or two people clearing.”
Ashley said he’s leaving it up to public officials and residents to decide whether that’s acceptable.
As for long-term options to pay for school resource officers, he has suggested increasing property taxes, floating a local option sales tax, using a portion of bed tax revenue or imposing franchise fees on local utility usage.
“(Local officials) are all working hard to figure out what the solution is,” he said. “They all recognize that no decision is a decision and to do nothing is unacceptable.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.