Fewer LCPD officers on school campuses due to shortage

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico - As the Las Cruces Police Department seeks to fill dozens of positions, the department has removed most of its school resource officers from city schools.

“I feel like it’s like a safety concern since there’s not good gun control in this country," said Sergio Hernandez, a sophomore at Las Cruces High School.

“We really think it’s going to work out just fine," said Dan Trujillo, a spokesman for Las Cruces police. "The unfortunate thing is that students won’t have the one-on-one they normally have with a school resource officer. That’s kind of sad because there’s a huge benefit for having our officers at all the schools.”

A school resource officer is an armed law enforcement officer who patrols a campus. Last year, LCPD had 10 SROs assigned to cover middle and high schools. This year, the department has two SROs that must travel across all the campuses.

"I can tell you that in the event of a critical incident, it is absolutely all hands on deck," said Kelly Jameson, a spokeswoman for Las Cruces Public Schools. "We will get law enforcement response and any available officer in the community.”

In middle and high schools within the city limits, she said the district has a budget of $333,000 to pay SROs with the Las Cruces Police Department. For the two schools in Mesilla, the district has a budget of $115,000 to pay marshals with the Town of Mesilla.

Jameson told ABC-7 that the district might not have armed security on campuses 24/7, but that there is a security presence on every campus. More than half of the district's security officers are retired law enforcement officers.

This school year, there are 71 unarmed security officers on campus, she said. In the 2019-2021 school year, there were 64 unarmed security officers.

"We do have procedures in place to go on lockdown or mitigate any kind of a threat," Jameson said.

"If anything drastic were to happen at a school, we believe we’d have more than enough resources to handle any such situation," Trujillo said.

The police department is hoping to fill about 60 positions, Trujillo said. For perspective, the department is allocated 202 positions.

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