By Paul DeMarco
The past three years have seen anti-police rhetoric at all time highs. The efforts to “defund the police” have been successful in some cities and states around the country. And as funding for law enforcement was reduced we also saw an increase in violence in the Nation.
These same attacks on officers also was aimed at school resource officers. A number of educational facilities removed their SROs from their campuses as well. While some have reversed their decisions and brought them back to their buildings, those that have always maintained a presence are now working to retain and hire more officers.
As inflation and the cost of living has increased in the United States, it has made it even harder for local governing entities and school systems to properly fund SROs and the equipment they need to keep their schools safe. Some cities pay for the salaries of full time officers, while in other locations the school system themselves pay for retired officers to serve as SROs.
This provides a challenge to ensure these retired officers can be paid a salary commiserate with the important job of serving as an SRO, without effecting their retirement benefits.
A bill introduced in the Alabama Legislature will address this specific concern. House Bill Number 46 introduced by Representative Allen Treadaway will remove the cap that retired school resource officers can be paid. Currently in the state, those who receive benefits from the Retirement Systems of Alabama are limited to a salary of no more than $37,000. This restriction hurts the ability to recruit officers out of retirement to serve school systems for the most important role in any school.
With the passage of this legislation, the hiring entity for school resource officers will not be limited on the salaries they choose to pay to incentivize the best of the best to come out of retirement to serve their local communities.
Treadaway, a 31 year law enforcement veteran, is the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee and with his experience and leadership hopefully the bill will pass and make it the governor’s desk for her signature to become law.
School systems around the nation are looking for the best and brightest to serve as their school resource officers. Legislation as introduced in Alabama should be passed in each state to ensure the most professional in law enforcement are hired and retained.
Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives and can be found on Twitter at @Paul_DeMarco