Memphis school system police force?

[GKar]

HB 1645 (Jones)/SB 723 (Tate) is seeking to authorize the Memphis school system to set up its own fully functional police force (?!?). This one comes before House Criminal Practices subcommittee 2/17 - I'll be interested in hearing the school system's presentation as to why they need this seemingly extreme measure. Something tells me I'm gonna be glad I live on the opposite end of the state...

Thoughts from those more familar would sure be appreciated...

[Guest jackdm3]

Sure. Try something. Anything.

But in any school, the cop is patrolling the halls while somebody like the KNOX. dude's already plugged two. You would have to have a cop sitting at the main office at all times. They can't be everywhere all the time and they'll be the first to admit it.

[Guest db99wj]

It is a good idea. I would like to see the hours that MPD spends in our schools. Having a full time campus police officer on site, all the time, that has full law enforcement capabilities, is a great idea and can help. Today's gang bangers are not stupid, they are not hanging out on the streets, they are in the schools, they are learning, they are educated. Gangs are organized crime organizations with members in many professions, including professional type professions such as lawyers, doctors, etc.

Many of the schools already have a MPD that is designated to that school, this would free up much need resources for the streets and allow equally qualified law enforcement professionals that patrol the schools. The school system here is one of the largest in the country.

It is a matter of time, I can't believe it hasn't happened yet, until a mass killing happens in a school here. You have two gangs, one school, with issues, and it is a powder keg waiting to explode.

<writes check to private school>

[macville]

Why start a whole different system of police that's going to need more computers and people. Why not just hire more officers for the police force and post them in schools? You will save money by not duplicating all the support staff/equipment that it takes to run a LE office.

Matthew

[Punisher84]

Why start a whole different system of police that's going to need more computers and people. Why not just hire more officers for the police force and post them in schools? You will save money by not duplicating all the support staff/equipment that it takes to run a LE office.

Matthew

That's the smart way to go and I think that's what Mayor Wharton wants to do.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Hell, clean up the town and get rid of the Ford family, while they're at it. A friend of mine had a son that got shot and killed while at Memphis State.

[-boatman-]

Why start a whole different system of police that's going to need more computers and people. Why not just hire more officers for the police force and post them in schools? You will save money by not duplicating all the support staff/equipment that it takes to run a LE office.

Matthew

I agree but they never take the sensible route. Gotta spend that tax payer money.

[Guest 270win]

Memphis City Schools already has armed guards cruising around in cop car looking Dodge Chargers. I saw several when I went to the Liberty Bowl and parked on Memphis City Schools property. I'm assuming their armed guards can handle whatever necessary at a school and detain a student until the police arrive to arrest. A dysfunctional school system in a dysfunctional city does not need its own dysfunctional police force. Memphis City Schools is a total joke and gives me a good laugh when they get on the TV news...it's like watching a foreign country's education system...give them a police force that can arrest and it will be the Memphis City Schools Militia kind of like Mozambique Militia.

[Guest jackdm3]

Memphis Mayor Wharton against school police The Commercial Appeal

[Guest MERRILL]

Razorback, Memphis school system isn't alone. Metro Nashville schools have cops in them. With the exception of a few magnet schools, the system is really bad. How do I know? I have worked in many of them.

[Fallguy]

Razorback, Memphis school system isn't alone. Metro Nashville schools have cops in them. With the exception of a few magnet schools, the system is really bad. How do I know? I have worked in many of them.

Several school systems have county or city officers in them.

But those officers work for the Sheriff's Dept or Police Dept, they don't directly answer to anyone in the school system.

I've wondered if that is what this is mainly about, they want the officers in the schools to be under the control of the school system?

[Guest MERRILL]

Several school systems have county or city officers in them.

But those officers work for the Sheriff's Dept or Police Dept, they don't directly answer to anyone in the school system.

I've wondered if that is what this is mainly about, they want the officers in the schools to be under the control of the school system?

I'm not sure, but I hope that they stay under control of whatever law enforcement agency they currently work. I mean the sheriff's dept. or the police dept. The school system would screw up the moving parts in a bowling ball.

[leroy]

Why start a whole different system of police that's going to need more computers and people. Why not just hire more officers for the police force and post them in schools? You will save money by not duplicating all the support staff/equipment that it takes to run a LE office.

Matthew

Matt is exactly right. You dont need another law enforcement bureauacracy run by the school system. Having your own private police force answering to a superintendent of schools is an open invitation for even more abuse of everybody's rights (which the memphis area city establishment seems to be pretty good at now....) as well as another avenue for unbelievably stupid hiring practices. More than that; once emplaced they will never be replaced, no matter how poor the performance record. I gurantee UAH and VT have a campus police department. So does most every other college. They aint doin too good at protecting students. They are good, however, at handing out things like parking citations. Park in the wrong place and see.

More city policemen or county sheriff's deputies assigned to each school is the answer. At least they don't answer directly to a superintendent of schools. Remember, the dean of UAH hired the UAH shooter and the Supt of Schools in Knoxville emplaced policies that allowed the hiring of the dip that shot the two teachers at Inskip Elementary in knoxville the other day. The guy's brother also went public and says he ghosted e-mails to the superintendent warning about him before the shooting. They were evidently written off as crank e-mails. I'ts amazing what a couple of hundred thousand will not buy these days.

The top of the education enterprize most everywhere is criminally bufoonish. I say giving them a private police force to manage and another tool (an armed one complete with police power) to implement the idiotic polices of these enterprizes is a terrible idea.

Food for thought

Leroy

[Guest db99wj]

Good points, whatever they do, they need to increase the presence and get control of the schools. I was thinking more along the lines of like campus police forces that the colleges use, but you guys are right, and I like this description from Merrill, "The school system would screw up the moving parts in a bowling ball."! The MCS would totally screw it up. There are a few schools in the Memphis area that need SWAT to patrol.

<writes another check for private school>

[GKar]

Supt. of the Memphis school system is arguing that the "security force" needs to have a different mindset/approach: one that acknowledges the educational setting and conforms its actions more to that paradigm, as opposed to the more traditional "enforcement" approach that any/all police departmenst will have. At least, that was what I got out of his missive to the subcomittee today.

Personally, I think he's just deeply steeped in academic ozone, and has such a bad case of cranio-rectitis he only sees the world through his navel.

[leroy]

Supt. of the Memphis school system is arguing that the "security force" needs to have a different mindset/approach: one that acknowledges the educational setting and conforms its actions more to that paradigm, as opposed to the more traditional "enforcement" approach that any/all police departmenst will have. At least, that was what I got out of his missive to the subcomittee today.

Personally, I think he's just deeply steeped in academic ozone, and has such a bad case of cranio-rectitis he only sees the world through his navel.

Fully agreed!!

I'm a bit more cynical. I think he is busy trying to create another bureaucracy that answers to him. The ultimate rush for the meglomaniacs must be your own police force. The next request will be for taxing authority for the school board. There are some pretty strange folks at the top of the school enterprize these days.

Food for thought

Leroy

[Guest TnRebel]

Why don't they set up a " School Resource Officer " through the county Sheriff's Office , and are duly sworn deputies , there are Federal funds for this and a county officer has jurisdiction in any part of the county he is a deputy of. AND I hate to keep putting it out there ... but thats the way Florida solved their problem with the schools. Every school in Florida with the exception of private and church schools has a Resource Officer. paid by the county and not the police forces.

[Fallguy]

Why don't they set up a " School Resource Officer " through the county Sheriff's Office , and are duly sworn deputies , there are Federal funds for this and a county officer has jurisdiction in any part of the county he is a deputy of. AND I hate to keep putting it out there ... but thats the way Florida solved their problem with the schools. Every school in Florida with the exception of private and church schools has a Resource Officer. paid by the county and not the police forces.

AFAIK they do have School Resource Officers now. But as you point out they work for someone else. I think they want police officers that work for them.

[Guest Tiki Jane]

San Antonio Texas has several different districts, including North East Independent School District. They have their own police force. The system is or was pretty highly regarded, generally making the top 100 in the country, but like every place else, their tax base is rapidly eroding. We called it the 'ghetto-ization' process. Most of the other 7 or 8 districts in the city had their own cop force, too.

I'm pretty sure its the same for Austin, Houston and the other major cities, so no surprise that Memphis wants a similar set - up. I'm surprised they don't have one now.

[Guest TnRebel]

AFAIK they do have School Resource Officers now. But as you point out they work for someone else. I think they want police officers that work for them.

That sir is a slippery road to go down .. whom will they be accountable to , if the school board , then what does the school board know of the law and civil rights. and who will pay for it if school tax then you already pay tax for law enforcement .. why pay again ?

Edited February 26, 2010 by TnRebel

[Bigiron]

Leroy, you are dead-on accurate. From someone who has been there and done that.