LCPS Board of Education to vote whether or not school resource officers’ contracts get renewed

UPDATE: The Board voted 4-1 to keep school resource officers.

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- The Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education will decide Tuesday evening if they will keep school resource officers, or SROs, in the district's schools.

As ABC-7 reported last week, at a September 5th meeting, one of the board members raised questions about the role these officers play in schools.

Board member Robert Wofford questioned the effectiveness of SROs, stating "one of the statistics I heard was a student is five times more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system if an SRO is in the building."

During Tuesday's public comment at the board meeting, nearly a dozen people, mainly students and faculty, voiced their support to keep SROs within the district.

While there were a couple people that brought up similar concerns as Wofford, the majority were pleading with the board to renew the SRO contracts.

This is a developing story, as the board meeting is still in process.

We'll be sure to keep you updated both on-air and online at KVIA.com as soon as a decision is made by the Board of Education.