Yes. County Commissioners are responsible under state statute for the health, safety, and welfare of all citizens in Douglas County. In Douglas County, public safety is one of the Board of County Commissioners highest priorities.
Accordingly, the Board believes all children – regardless of where they go to school – deserve to have a safe place to learn. The result of this Board philosophy – and one that accelerated growth of the existing SRO program after the STEM School shooting on May 7, 2019 – is that today the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office SRO program is the largest in the state.
School Resource Officers are integral to school emergency preparedness and response, as well as being a preventive measure to aid with threat assessments and safety planning. The SRO’s ability to represent a safe environment – and to develop proactive relationships with students and school leadership – has been a proven success in Douglas County.
In partnership with schools, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office employs School Resource Officers to cover neighborhood, charter, and private schools in unincorporated Douglas County. Public schools covered include Chaparral High School, Douglas County High School, Highlands Ranch High School, Mountain Vista High School, Ponderosa High School, Rock Canyon High School, and ThunderRidge High School and their feeder middle and elementary schools. They also cover private schools including Valor Christian, Cherry Hills Christian School, Colorado Christian Academy and Arma Dei Academy, and charter schools, including Parker Core Knowledge, Platte River Academy, SkyView Academy, STEM Highlands Ranch, American Academy Castle Pines, North Star Academy and Ben Franklin Academy.
The average cost for each officer – including salaries (an average of $108,000 per year), benefits, uniforms, cell phones, body worn cameras and dashcam technology, and annual travel – is shared 50/50 by the Sheriff’s Office and school. Douglas County provides an additional $12,700 annually per officer for overtime and on-call work, professional memberships, firearms, uniform replacements, range fees, fleet maintenance, fuel, and other ongoing operating costs.