Politics & Government
City Council Endorses Plan to Bring City Police to Bowie High
A Bowie officer will become a School Resource Officer at High School.
The Bowie City Council on Monday night unanimously supported a plan to assign a Bowie police officer to in the fall to serve as the School Resource Officer.
Currently, county sheriff’s deputies serve as resource officers at the school. The Prince George’s County Police provided resource officers for Bowie High until 2006 when the county sheriff’s office took over the role.
County Councilwoman Ingrid Turner added $80,000 to the county budget to reimburse the city for the cost of the School Resource Officer. Adding a resource officer to Bowie High School was in the original plans for the city police department in 2005, according to City Manager David Deutsch.
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“This is a logical evolution of the police department,” said Mayor G. Frederick Robinson. “Clearly this provides localized engagement. It’s good for the students, the faculty and the parents and it’s good for the agency to be able to spend some time there.”
City officers work in in Greenbelt and in Hyattsville. The county has reimbursed Greenbelt and Hyattsville for the cost of placing their officers in the schools since 2006.
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While a current city officer will likely be tapped to be the school resource officer, Deutsch said it will be necessary to hire an additional officer in fiscal 2012 to maintain current staffing levels. Deutsch said he would request an additional appropriation of $129,462.
The City Council approved two additional officers in the fiscal 2012 budget approved in the spring. A third officer would bring the department to 55 officers.
“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that Bowie police officers may come into our schools,” said Mary Nusser, president of Bowie’s Parent Teacher Student Organization.
