Analyzing number of school resource officers, need at each school

Local school officials and authorities spoke Tuesday about the number and distribution of school resource officers, armed members of law enforcement agencies who help provide security at schools.

KRDO NewsChannel 13 is asking how many schools have SROs and whether more are needed.

At least 50 are in El Paso County, and at least 17 in Pueblo County.

Lt. Bill Huffor, of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, said that agency has an SRO in 10 of the county’s 13 high schools, with a goal of having an officer in all of its high schools and in some middle schools.

The county pays 75 percent of an SRO’s salary, and school districts cover the rest.

Devra Ashby, spokeswoman for School District 11, the largest district in Colorado Springs, said the district has five SROs who patrol each of its five high schools and respond to middle schools when needed.

D-11 will soon hire nine SROs with money from a mill levy increase approved by voters last fall; those officers will be assigned to middle schools to replace the nine who were cut in the past decade because of funding limitations.

Ashby said the new officers will free up district security staff to patrol 33 elementary schools more often.

Many school districts have their own security staff to supplement SROs.

But are these numbers enough?

In light of recent shootings, some people believe you can never have too many SROs, while others say hiring more would be an overreaction to school shootings that are rare.