MONROE - The City of Monroe is considering adding an officer to the police force who will be assigned to the school district.
The idea comes at a time when police officers have been called to search the Monroe High School and Middle School several times in the past two weeks after potentially threatening notes were found in the two schools.
Monroe Police Chief Fred Kelley asked the City of Monroe's Public Safety Committee on Monday for permission to apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice COPS office to hire an additional police officer for a direct school assignment. The deadline for application is April 14.
Depending upon the grant's timing, an officer could start in May or at the beginning of next school year.
Kelley said the current number of officers in the department does not allow for any one officer to be assigned to the school on a permanent basis. Monroe is one of a few schools in the Badger Conference that does not have an officer in the school. Police officers currently rotate, as available, to cover the schools.
"The school district has identified that they could use the help," Kelley said.
Kelley said officers, "from time to time," walk through the school, have lunch with the students and are present during recesses, at the request of the schools.
The presence of an officer in the school "may or may not" prevent the current threat notes found in the schools, he said. But having an officer in the school would reduce response time, and the officer is a resource in other ways, he added.
"They talk with the classes; they are there for kids to come talk to and report crimes to," he said.
"Is it 100 percent effective? No," Kelley said. "But it's a presence. Parents know (they are there), and it's a confidence builder."
The recent incidents at the schools may be isolated cases and may be over with, or such incidents could be just the beginning, "if it trips the school into a cycle?" Kelley said.
Committee Chairman Charles Koch noted the possibility of getting the grant was enough reason to apply for it.
"(We'll) see where it takes us. We've got to address this issue," he said.
The COPS Hiring Recovery Program is a competitive grant program designed to address the law enforcement agencies nationwide by providing money directly to agencies to create and preserve jobs, increase agencies' community policing capacity and crime-prevention efforts.
Up to $1 billion in grant funding was appropriated for the initiative through the 2009 federal economic stimulus.
The program grant would fully fund the entry-level salary and benefits of a full-time officer for 36 months, but there is a 12-month retention period at the conclusion of the grant, the cost for which the city would be responsible.
Kelley estimated the present cost of an entry-level officer wages and benefits at about $63,000.
The city would be responsible for any additional costs for salaries and benefits that are higher than entry level. There is no local funding match requirement for the COPS Hiring Recovery Program.
It is the retention period that has some committee members and aldermen hesitant, not knowing how or when the economy - and the city's budget - will recover.
To stay within its state-set 2 percent tax levy increase cap, the city had to cut about $490,000 from the 2009 budget last fall. It transferred about $200,000 from surplus funds, or $75,000 more than it did in 2008, to offset the shortage of expected revenues over budgeted expenses.
Alderman Mark Coplien, chairman of the Salary and Personnel Committee, called the grant application a wise decision.
Committee member Paul Hannes commented that he has no problem with the grant program if the school district would help pay part of the fourth-year expense.
Coplien noted the cost would have to come through taxes, whether from the city or the school, but Hannes said the school tax would be spread out over a larger population.
Money from COPS grants cannot be used to replace local funds the city otherwise would devote to hiring sworn officers. Officers hired under the program must be in addition to officers hired with local funds.
The grant application requires the city to identify its plan and source for retention funding.
The committee approved the grant application and sent it to the Salary and Personnel Committee for its approval. The committee will address the issue at 6 p.m. Wednesday, at City Hall.
The idea comes at a time when police officers have been called to search the Monroe High School and Middle School several times in the past two weeks after potentially threatening notes were found in the two schools.
Monroe Police Chief Fred Kelley asked the City of Monroe's Public Safety Committee on Monday for permission to apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice COPS office to hire an additional police officer for a direct school assignment. The deadline for application is April 14.
Depending upon the grant's timing, an officer could start in May or at the beginning of next school year.
Kelley said the current number of officers in the department does not allow for any one officer to be assigned to the school on a permanent basis. Monroe is one of a few schools in the Badger Conference that does not have an officer in the school. Police officers currently rotate, as available, to cover the schools.
"The school district has identified that they could use the help," Kelley said.
Kelley said officers, "from time to time," walk through the school, have lunch with the students and are present during recesses, at the request of the schools.
The presence of an officer in the school "may or may not" prevent the current threat notes found in the schools, he said. But having an officer in the school would reduce response time, and the officer is a resource in other ways, he added.
"They talk with the classes; they are there for kids to come talk to and report crimes to," he said.
"Is it 100 percent effective? No," Kelley said. "But it's a presence. Parents know (they are there), and it's a confidence builder."
The recent incidents at the schools may be isolated cases and may be over with, or such incidents could be just the beginning, "if it trips the school into a cycle?" Kelley said.
Committee Chairman Charles Koch noted the possibility of getting the grant was enough reason to apply for it.
"(We'll) see where it takes us. We've got to address this issue," he said.
The COPS Hiring Recovery Program is a competitive grant program designed to address the law enforcement agencies nationwide by providing money directly to agencies to create and preserve jobs, increase agencies' community policing capacity and crime-prevention efforts.
Up to $1 billion in grant funding was appropriated for the initiative through the 2009 federal economic stimulus.
The program grant would fully fund the entry-level salary and benefits of a full-time officer for 36 months, but there is a 12-month retention period at the conclusion of the grant, the cost for which the city would be responsible.
Kelley estimated the present cost of an entry-level officer wages and benefits at about $63,000.
The city would be responsible for any additional costs for salaries and benefits that are higher than entry level. There is no local funding match requirement for the COPS Hiring Recovery Program.
It is the retention period that has some committee members and aldermen hesitant, not knowing how or when the economy - and the city's budget - will recover.
To stay within its state-set 2 percent tax levy increase cap, the city had to cut about $490,000 from the 2009 budget last fall. It transferred about $200,000 from surplus funds, or $75,000 more than it did in 2008, to offset the shortage of expected revenues over budgeted expenses.
Alderman Mark Coplien, chairman of the Salary and Personnel Committee, called the grant application a wise decision.
Committee member Paul Hannes commented that he has no problem with the grant program if the school district would help pay part of the fourth-year expense.
Coplien noted the cost would have to come through taxes, whether from the city or the school, but Hannes said the school tax would be spread out over a larger population.
Money from COPS grants cannot be used to replace local funds the city otherwise would devote to hiring sworn officers. Officers hired under the program must be in addition to officers hired with local funds.
The grant application requires the city to identify its plan and source for retention funding.
The committee approved the grant application and sent it to the Salary and Personnel Committee for its approval. The committee will address the issue at 6 p.m. Wednesday, at City Hall.