A Kearney Police officer at the 2023 D.A.R.E. program graduation, led by Officer Boyd Weller (background), (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — The annual School Resource Officer report was delivered to the Kearney school board during their meeting on Monday, Sept. 9.
Sgt. J.C. Small with the Kearney Police Department (KPD), who oversees the School Resource Officers that include Nate Dennis, Boyd Weller and a newcomer to the position, Luis Arevalo.
Sgt. Small said that KPD carefully selects those officers who will serve as SRO’s and they receive specialty training in threat assessments, crime prevention through environmental design and youth mental health first aid.
The SROs have worked carefully with the district to ensure that they are on the same page with educators when it comes to procedures. Small also said that they now have good reunifications plan in place for all the buildings.
As for school coverage, there is an SRO always posted at Kearney High School and they do not leave the high school unmanned. Small said 75 percent of violence in school districts occurs at high schools.
The Horizon Middle School SRO also handles calls at the Hanny Arram Center for Success and all the elementary schools on the west side of 2nd Ave.
On the other side of Kearney, the Sunrise Middle School SRO handles all the other elementary schools on the east side of 2nd Ave.
Small quoted the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), which stated that an SROs time should ideally be divided between law enforcement (20 percent), being an educator (40 percent) and being an informal counselor (40 percent).
Small said that they are working to put more time toward the education side of the SRO position but noted their current education programs, such as the Youth Citizen’s Police Academy and the D.A.R.E. Program.
The Youth Citizen’s Police Academy is a five-week program that occurs during the summer. Small said for the D.A.R.E. program, which recently returned to KPS, is being expanded from two schools to three this year. Officer Boyd Weller is the KPS D.A.R.E. officer.
Small spoke to the challenges that the SROs face, including the fact that they are three officers who have to cover 15 schools in the district.
Also, the SROs are often busy with additional training, court, DHHS intake, follow-up investigations, presentations, etc. Time must also be allowed for personal leave.
Small moved into the SRO unit statistics from the 2023-2024 school year.
He noted there were 281 incident reports, with a clearance rate of 62 percent, which was down two percent from the previous year.
Those incidents included disturbances, 21 percent; assaults, 17 percent; child abuse/neglect, 15 percent; nicotine/alcohol/drugs, 12 percent; sexual assault/obscenities, five percent and mental health/welfare checks, seven percent.
Of those, 205, or 73 percent, were resolved without criminal consequence. Small said there is a heavy emphasis on in-school discipline, rather than a criminal referral to the Buffalo County attorney.
Small did say there were 76 juvenile referrals made last year, only up one from the previous year. There is a change that has been made to the tobacco/vaping procedure, which will shift to more in-school discipline, rather than a referral.
Building relationships plays a key part in keeping both students and staff safe, Small said.
A student feeling comfortable enough to tell an SRO about a potential threat could be the difference between successful intervention or an incident occurring.
When it comes to reporting, Small said there is a new tool, Safe2Help, a new app that will replace See It Say It as a reporting tool. It has already been utilized the first week of school.
2023 Emerson Elementary D.A.R.E Program Graduation
