Sheriff Ken Furlong said Friday he will keep a police presence in Carson City’s schools despite the fact the capital failed to win a COPS in Schools grant this year.
“We don’t have the bodies to have a school resource officer program,” he said.
He said both the school board and Board of Supervisors recognize the value of the school resource officer program, “but the challenge is having the money to dedicate those bodies.”
He said the grant would have done that and enabled the city and district to, over time, assume more financial responsibility for the program.
“To swallow the entire ticket — about $250,000 — right out of the gate is a little tough on this community in this economy,” Furlong said.
Instead, he said the department will continue having an officer assigned to Carson High and Pioneer High. He said beat officers are handling the middle schools.
He said that’s not the same as a full School Resource Officer program which, he said, requires specialized training but added: “We’re doing the absolute best we can with what we’ve got.”
Furlong said one reason Carson didn’t get a grant is the city’s low crime rate. He said those numbers may be something to boast about, but “it may not be helping us well in the grant area.”
He notified Carson School District Superintendent Richard Stokes the city didn’t win the grant in an email Thursday.
