The Gresham police department will shift school resource officers from the Centennial, Gresham-Barlow and Reynolds districts to city patrol positions to plug vacancies, officials said in a release Tuesday.
With patrol staff down by 19, recruiting and retaining officers is now the top priority, Gresham Police Chief Travis Gullberg said in the release.
Other school districts in Oregon have pulled officers from their schools for different reasons. In June 2020, Portland Public Schools announced it wouldn’t allow school resource officers in its high schools, in the wake of nationwide racial justice protests. Later, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced the city would end the school resource program in PPS and the David Douglas and Parkrose school districts.
A representative of the Gresham-Barlow School District said that the district is looking for additional support from other law enforcement agencies.
“The Gresham-Barlow School District is disappointed to hear that the Gresham Police Department will be pausing the program,” district spokesperson Athena Vadnais wrote in an email. “The school resource officer program is critically important to our schools and an essential part of our school safety equation.”
The city of Gresham, meantime, will rely on partnerships with community-based organizations to help prevent youth violence. Its Youth Services team does not offer school security, however.
Gresham police received $5.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to help hiring and retention efforts, but it can take upwards of 18 months to onboard a new officer, according to Gullberg. The police department will use the funding to hire an officer recruiter, offer referral bonuses and work with the state to reduce employment barriers, according to the release.
When staffing stabilizes, Gresham officials say they will reinstate school resource officers.
“While this was a very difficult decision because we understand the value of our school resource officers to the community, it is what’s necessary at this time to increase our ability to respond to emergencies,” Gullberg said in the release.
– Austin De Dios; adedios@oregonian.com; @austindedios; (503) 219-9744
