LCPS Board to vote on contracts for School Resource Officers

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- The Board of Las Cruces Public Schools is set to vote Tuesday, on whether to renew the contract for School Resource Officers. These are officers from Las Cruces Police who are paid by the city, and in part the District, to help protect students.

At a September 5th meeting, one of the board members raised important questions about the role these officers play in schools.

Do they indeed help make students safe?

Do they lead to more arrests or detainments than necessary? And couldn't officers only be called when they're needed, rather than having them be a consistent presence in schools?

Those questions led some in the community to believe the board is leaning towards getting rid of the resource officers.

Some students told ABC-7 they hope it doesn't happen.

"Sometimes there's threats on social media that can be empty threats, or the day comes and it's a real threat. Having the police officer and the SRO here allows us to know that if something goes down, and that threat really does become an actual threat, we have him here," she said.

ABC-7 also spoke with Board president Teresa Tenorio.

She said while there was certainly no direction following the September 5th meeting about which direction the board would go in, she did not hear a yes, or a no.

The board vote is expected Tuesday, at 6 p.m.