Horry County leaders want school board to pay more for school resource officers

PINOPOLIS, SC (WBTW) – Horry County leaders say they want to make the Horry County School Board pay more for school resource officers.

Right now, the county and the school board split the cost of putting officers in the schools – each entity paying an equal 50% of the school resource officer’s salary. County leaders now want the school board to foot 90% of the bill.

Horry County leaders say it’s unfair that the county funds 50% of the salary for SROs when those officers really only serve the needs of the police department during the summer months when school is out. For the majority of the year, the schools benefit from having the uniformed officers at their disposal.

The argument from the county comes as the Horry County Police Department faces several vacancies and as the Chief Joe Hill says he struggles to put enough officers out on the street to keep the community safe.

The cost of existing SROs is more than $1.5 million, and in this year’s proposed budget, the county is looking to bring on three more officers. That added cost would total more than $463,000.

In Thursday’s budget workshop, county council members talked about the option of pulling Horry County Police officers entirely out of the schools to put them back on the streets of neighborhoods in the county.

Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus says retired law enforcement members may be a solution to fill the SRO positions.

“We talked about 1,000 shield participants that are former law enforcement officers that are retired that could possibly fill in some of those hired by the schools, different things like that,” says Lazarus. “There’s a lot of opportunities and a lot of discussion that will take place between now and July 1^st when we actually implement our budget.”

Chief Hill says he’s not advocating for the county to take away the SROs. The officers serve a fundamental role within the schools, says Hill.

“The purpose of the SROs is to be a presence in the school, is to be a deterrent, to be a problem solver in the school and to quickly respond to criminal activities that occur in the school, and we do have them from assaults to drug possessions, to weapon possessions,” explains Hill. “Our SROs have been very effective, but they also serve as mentors and coaches to a lot of the young people.”

Lazarus says he’s not ready to completely pull officers from schools. He says county council will have to discuss any changes with the Horry County School Board.

Horry County Schools Spokesperson Teal Britton released the following statement in regards to the possible SRO change:

“The school district has had a long and successful 50-50 partnership with the Horry County Police Department to provide school resource officers in schools that are not served by municipal police departments. The Horry County Police Department’s recent request for the school district to increase its share of funding for the Horry County Police Department’s School Resource Officer Program will be part of the school district’s 2017-18 budget development conversations taking place now through June.”