ABILENE, TX – The Round Rock school police force, which will completely take over district security by June, is setting out to focus on mental health and equity.
On April 20, the district police chief, Jeffrey Yarbrough, and other staff told the board it has hired 22 officers and has taken over security at most schools within the district.
“We are very proud to create a Police Department that we believe will be a model throughout the country,” said acting superintendent Daniel Presley.
Last year, the board voted to create a district Police Department after the Round Rock Police Department and the Williamson County sheriff’s office informed the administration they could no longer provide school resource officers due to the increased demands within their jurisdictions.
“We’ve had great relationships with our law enforcement partners,” Presley said. “They didn’t leave us because they didn’t like us. They left because they needed to focus their resources.”
Despite hesitation from some community members, the trustees ultimately felt that creating their own Police Department was the only security option. District data shows that the majority of teachers and community members wanted to keep officers within the schools.
At the April 20 meeting, Yarbrough, Presley, assistant Police Chief James Williby and the district’s director of behavioral health, Amy Grosso, set out to address lingering concerns the board or community might have.
Presley said one fear the community expressed was that hiring officers would be a challenge. However, the district has received significant interest in the position.
Yarbrough said only about 20% of applicants make it through the district’s hiring process and that many of the officers hired have significant experience.
The district focused on hiring officers who understand the importance of addressing mental health and disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline, Yarbrough said.
“We hire officers who understand equity and we only hire officers that can stand on that pillar,” Yarbrough said.
The department is more diverse than police officers nationwide, according to data provided by Yarbrough. Twenty-nine percent of the officers are female, compared to 18% nationwide. Thirty percent of the officers are Black, 33% Hispanic and 30% white, compared to national averages of 14%, 18%, and 44% respectively.
Yarbrough said the department is focused on only addressing police matters, not discipline.
“Law enforcement is not the first go to,” Yarbrough said in reference to disciplinary issues. “It never should be because you create that disproportionality.”
Last year the board approved funding to hire several social workers, including two for each of the five learning communities. Currently, the district has one social worker trained in trauma-informed care and three trained in mental health first aid for children.
“We are not putting officers in the place of being mental health experts,” Grosso said.
She gave an example of a student who was having a mental health crisis on campus. The student’s parents had attempted to get the child help, but had not been able to get them into a mental health facility.
District police officers responded to a call about the student, as did one of the social workers. Together, the officer, the social worker and the student’s parents took the student to mental health facilities until they were able to get the student admitted.
Grosso said a normal department likely would not have had the resources to get the child that type of care.
“(This is) not an agency that will move to criminalize juvenile, reckless, irresponsible or adolescent behavior,” Yarbrough said.
Yarbrough said this one example of how the officers are trained to be student advocates. He said the department is focused on addressing the root cause of bad behaviors, such as using drugs.
Williby said the flexibility of having a district-run department has already paid off. He said the department received a call about an individual walking near a campus with an assault rifle. Department police officers and local law enforcement officers responded, but found that the individual was lawfully carrying the weapon and was not on district property. While the other agencies had to leave to return to their normal duties, district officers formed a perimeter around the campus until the person left.
Presley also gave the example of the recent shooting that happened in Northwest Austin that left three people dead. The incident took place near several Round Rock facilities and the suspect remained on the loose overnight. Presley said district officers were stationed on the campuses and arrived early Monday and searched the properties and surrounding areas for any threat.
Presley also addressed concerns around the cost of the department. He said the startup costs have been less than expected and the costs of operating the department so far have been less than it has cost the district for security in the past.
The district will likely have to spend additional money setting up facilities for the officers. Presley said the chief and assistant chief currently share an office and the police records department, which the district is required to have by law, is set up in the superintendent suite since Presley has not moved into that office while assuming that role in a temporary capacity.
“I had what I would call a healthy level of skepticism for this enterprise,” Trustee Danielle Weston said. “But I heard some information in this presentation. … I just want everyone here to know I’m moving forward with an open mind as an elected trustee.”
