OLYMPIA, Wash. - Budget cuts could force the city to reassign its two campus police officers back to patrolling the streets.
Currently each high school in Olympia has an Olympia police officer assigned to campus. The two officers respond to nearby elementary and middle schools as needed.
Under next year's proposed budget, the two officers would no longer be on campus.
"There's a perspective you get from being here all day every day," said Officer Amy King, who spends most of her days patrolling Olympia High School.
Officer King said she has helped break up drug deals, theft rings and fights. She believes just the presence of a police car on campus serves as a deterrent to violence.
The Assistant Principal said he expects the school district to encourage the city to look elsewhere for cuts.
"She [Officer King] provides a safe feeling to the campus and develops positive relationships with the students," said Assistant Principal Mark Davis.
The budget proposed by Olympia's City Manager calls for $4 million in cuts. Fourteen city employees would be laid off under the budget that still needs to be approved by the city council.
rationalmind said on November 9, 2009 at 7:19 PM
I am so sure that without a police force in the school anarchy and crime will explode in the high schools...For sure this police person is stopping crime, and keeping the kids safe from mass murder by some crazy student...Thank God For That...We must live always in fear and expect the worse...We are helpless without the police, the military and the government along with all the laws prisons and courts...The sky is falling, the sky is falling, God help us all!!! One solution is to enact a citizen police unit, we can have local unemployed bring their guns to school and walk the halls on shifts, that will keep those unruly criminal teenagers at bay...