Salinas Police Department bringing back School Resource Officers

It’s no secret that Salinas struggles with gangs, but what if Salinas Officers could reach out to at risk youth on a more personal level? That’s the hope as SPD looks to bring back SROs, officers who would be working inside the schools. The department received a grant for $3.4 million dollars, that money would fund eight resource officers for three years. The catch is, they need to hire them by August or they’ll lose all that free money.

“To get these eight school resource officers is going to be a struggle. We are going to have to pull them from patrol, but patrol is already extremely short of bodies. But we don’t want to lose the grant. This Chief has been really great at stepping up our recruitment efforts, and we have been hiring a lot of new police officers, so our hope is pinned on that,” said SPD Sergeant Heath Johnson.

SPD Sergeant Johnson said they get lots of calls for service at the schools, so it will be helpful to have officers stationed on campuses. Plus, they’ll be able to bring back programs they had in the past, such as the GREAT program, which stands for Gang Resistance Education and Training.