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Education

How One Elementary School Added an Armed Police Officer — at Zero Cost to Taxpayers

Mar. 6, 2013 5:04pm Madeleine Morgenstern

Putting armed police officers in schools has been a repeat topic of conversation following the Newtown, Conn. massacre, as has the question of how to pay for them without shifting the extra cost on to taxpayers.

One South Carolina elementary school has solved that issue quite simply — giving their community police officer a desk and letting him set up shop right there on campus at Plain Elementary.

“I’d rather be here and not be needed, than be needed and not be here,’’ Simpsonville police officer Justin Chandler told NBC’s “Today.”

Chandler takes care of all of his administrative duties at Plain, then gets up and patrols the halls.

“All I needed from the school is a desk and Wi-Fi,’’ he said. “We said it’s a no-brainer. When we got down to brass tacks with it, it didn’t cost a dime.’’

According to Today, response from parents has been universally positive. School principal Debbie Mihalic said she never anticipated the benefits having a school police officer on campus all day would bring.

“I feel safer,’’ Mihalic said. “I never thought that actually having an officer at (Plain) Elementary would be that valuable, but now that he’s here, I don’t want him to leave.’’

Plain Elementary isn’t alone — according to the Simpsonville Patch, three other schools in the region have similar police officer arrangement in place, as do schools in Jordan, Minn., according to NBC.

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Comments (49)

elkslayer
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:42pm
Has any one been ticketed by a radar camera? Some one has to sit at a desk and mail the ticket and view the videos. In a city of about 10,000 , 150 tickets are sent out each week. This is one job that can be done in a school office. My neighbor was on light duty and this is what he could do at home. Not that he did do it from his home, he just showed me how it was done. All he needed was the internet.

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- ICSPADES
  Posted on March 7, 2013 at 5:48am
  Most traffic cameras are run by private contractors, not your local police dept. This is a multimillion dollar scheme that is getting eaten alive in courts across America.
  
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WINNEBAGOMAN
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:27pm
I hope people keep in mind that nothing works 100% of the time. This has so much up side to though, why wouldn’t you do it? A school’s staff and students feel more safe, and for good reason, they are more safe with a uniformed, trained, REAL police officer (not a guard) at the school. The most powerful weapon he has on him (that I noticed) was his radio. Sure it’s very possible for him, with his Glock 22 (.40 cal) handgun to be outgunned. But his radio will dispatch the calvary instantly! No waiting for someone to answer a phone. No waiting to dial. No bad connection (cell phone). In an active-shooter scenario, seconds matter.

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- redfish52
  Posted on March 7, 2013 at 8:12am
  @winn…you are partially correct but as a resident in SC I know something that most of you don’t and that is that most schools in SC have had officers in them for years. especially the larger high schools where there is usually a police satellite office. The only schools that do not have protection are the very rural ones but that is changing as we speak. The majority of South Carolinian’s support this effort. We even had a serious drug problem in a N. Charleston HS a few years age that prompted the police to bring in drug sniffing dogs. Oh course it was meet with rejection until the dogs turned up drugs and weapons to which arrests were made. We do it right in South Carolina and do it without Federal Government intervention.
  
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- hyper
  Posted on March 7, 2013 at 12:22pm
  I, too, live in SC and concourr with Redfish52′s comments. We have had officers in schools (some more than others) for the past 20 years. Some were part time, others were permanent. We also have to have an 8 hr classroom course with gun qualification at the end for a concealed weapons permit. Those of us who DO HAVE a CWP know what we CAN and CAN’T do. We’re not just a bunch of right-wing rednecks looking to shoot road signs. I’m college educated and not only will do whateve i can to protect my family…i’m going to support sensible measures to protect our kids. There’s also nothing wrong with teachers concealing weapons for protection with the proper training…and training IS available.
  
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New.World.Fastfood.Order
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:21pm
Clearly they pay him in pastries.

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Libertyluvnmomma
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:09pm
Hopefully the officers are fit.
We have a police chief that is so fat I think he needs a shoe horn and some lube to get out of the cruiser.
He makes it a low rider!

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Libertyluvnmomma
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:06pm
how much more would it cost to have an officer paying attention 100% of the time,
and not distracted by “administrative duties”?
one body or 33???
..oh about a few grand

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 10:03pm
There should be an armed officer in every school.

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RJnSC
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 9:05pm
We live close to this school! This is an awesome idea! Too bad that as soon as the liberals catch wind his superiors will be forced to return him back to his desk at the station.

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elkslayer
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:59pm
We have had police in our school for several years. We call them kiddi cops.Other officers made fun of them because it was where most officers started out.

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ALL4FREEDOM
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:57pm
Amazing! Having a trained person with an open-carried weapon makes everyone feel SAFER. Who’d a thunk? What would be the result if lots of trained people were openly armed? Would they feel safer still? CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY NOW.

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RaydocX
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:04pm
saw a report… 90% of educators favored armed security in schools…
while administrators mouthed ‘increases the risk’ lies, ‘won’t protect agains violece’ lies, and ‘only on the perimeter not inside the school’ foolishness… last i saw, the killings did not occur ‘on the perimeter’

apparently the legislators today were early graduates of today’s teach to the lowest common denominator public schools. They think emotionally, not critically, and they cannot step back and admit they might have been wrong, even after it becomes PAINFULLY obvious they are in error.

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- CommonSenseTalk
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 10:18pm
  even if it didn’t end the violence, it would sure stop it faster!
  
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banjarmon
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:53pm
I’m going to talk to my cop buddy, the county sheriff, and school board to implement this idea in my county!!

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Oldscout47
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:35pm
One of the recommendations I made to the NRA school safety project headed by Asa Hutchinson is that police sub-stations be situated in or immediately adjacent to the school campus. I hope that future school building projects will bring all k-12 into one campus with security built into the design. The community should consider locating future schools and police structures in closer proximity with the possibility of a sub-station on the campus that does not have “booking” or “holding” duties.
The NRA project will offer tools and strategies that are flexible and will fit different budgets and staff sensibilities and capabilities. Most will not be made public in an effort to prevent dilution of the effectiveness of these tools and strategies. The lethal police presence has been suggested as a stop-gap measure until the other options are ready. It can be kept in place if the community is supportive. My recommendations were over 95% non-lethal as I believe most will be. The options range from expensive high-tech to almost no cost low-tech.

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Salamander
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 7:14pm
Great idea–satellite police office in schools! I LOVE IT–joint use of public facilities!

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Kiba
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:39pm
Funny how we can have off-duty cops in bars and taco-bells at night but to put them in schools is a budget-breaker.

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cptenn94
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:34pm
WOAH ITS SO SHOCKING!!!! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT THE KIDS DID NOT COWER IN FEAR AND WET THEMSELVES BECAUSE THERE AS AN ARMED OFFICER IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!!!! IM SO BAFFLED….

In no way would i hae ever thought that the libs would be dumb enough, to say that haveing a armed officer in the school, would make the kids feel unsafe.
As we have proven yet again, the libs loveto spew tons of bs, and literally make up stuff, to try to push their agenda.

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jungle J
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:32pm
Cop haters will hate you to because they are foundationaly haters and non valuable as citizens.

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AtomSmashers
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:17pm
I’m confused, I thought taxpayers paid law enforcement? I’d like to see if officers around Metro Detroit have the time to do that. Simpsonville probably doesn’t have too much going on. Glad they could do that, but that cannot work everywhere.

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- MDECKER
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:53pm
  Right, like there are a lot of similarities between Detroit and Newtown, CT.
  
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- Exiledhunter_6
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:59pm
  There are plenty of cops who do nothing more than administrative duties (which is what this cop does) and they just added the school to his location of places to do that work, so yeah it’s a no-duh situation and every large city has plenty of these cops at their stations. May as well add to their duties. This could work most everywhere and if there is a place it can’t work, then you sit down and get creative.
  
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AUsername
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:15pm
hey that is better than his old job of writing tickets and looking for trouble.

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:41pm
  LOSER, It figures that you would miss the point that he does primarily administrative work for the department. They just came up with a double edged sword of an idea for this particular school allowing his to do his usual day to day tasks while making his presence known as a trained and armed police officer.
  
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- AUsername
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 9:31pm
  if you all have to go around looking for trouble and writing tickets it means there is to many of you and not enough real crime for you all to take care of, therefore surplus and artificial stimulus for the unemployable.
  
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chickiefromthesouth
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:51pm
Now they are thinking… why not build community/neighborhood police offices in the schools when new buildings are being constructed? Not a solution for existing infrastructure, but definitely something to consider for future expansion.

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- pagraywolf
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:17pm
  Great idea, Chickie!
  
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- Babci
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 8:43pm
  I know you are well intentioned but why do you (and others) immediately jump from a SIMPLE idea that is working to an ELABORATE idea that is complicated and less likely to work.
  
  My example? Kids playing baseball in an empty lot. We used to see that in virtually every town, village and city in America. Then people said the kids need a real baseball diamond. We put in scoreboards, announcer huts, bleachers, etc. Other than organized scheduled games, there is NEVER a group of kids playing ball on one of these ELABORATE fields. I know, you might see a Dad out with a kid or two hitting fly balls, but never do a group of kids play a pickup game on one of these fields. Simple is often better…why can’t we remember this before we speak.
  
  Congratulations Plain Elementary! Someone has some common sense.
  
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Irememberamerica
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:42pm
They should be in all schools.

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- M13
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:50pm
  So the NRA was right again. Encinom hates it when that happens.
  
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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:43pm
  M13, Oh, I think that ENCINOM will eventually arrive at this story to deride the fact that there is now a loaded gun in that school while once again peeing his panties.
  
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Eastinfection
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:40pm
How about having a rotating group of cops teach a civics class or something.
If it’s at a High School, they could also keep an eye out for kids that they could encourage to go into law enforcement as a career.
I think it would be better for everybody if police made more of an effort to engage their communities on a personal level… fight the stereo-type of cops being boogie-men that aren’t to be trusted.
The new breed of “Terminator 2″ cops make me nervous.

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MamaLiberty
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:38pm
Doesn’t cost anything? His paycheck comes out of taxpayer funds. Taxes are collected from those who want something like this, and also from those who do not – just as with everything else government does. It is just creative bookkeeping.

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- Eastinfection
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:44pm
  He’s not a beat-cop.
  He’s an administrator.
  In other words… he has a desk job.
  Most PDs have several cops that fit this description and could easily perform their duties in a school, at home, or in Starbucks, for that matter.
  
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- Gremlin1974
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:54pm
  @EASTINVASION, cool thanks for the clarificaion. it will probably also mean that other cops will be dropping by randomly to either converse, drop stuff off, or other such things. That’s the part I like about it.
  
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DEFCON4
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:36pm
Hold On ! Didn’t anyone suggest we have a meeting to form a non-partisan
committee. Then, the delegation will have to wait for a Federal ‘task-force. To
over-see the long term implications of these actions being too simple and in-
expensive.

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Stoic one
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:15pm
Cool..but what is he doing.

Here in Ohio they are suggesting retired police become substitute teachers – also a good creative solution.

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- RDavis49
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:25pm
  I say your comment is a little ignorant to be kind. He’ll be doing whatever the hell the people hire him to do and that’s NONE of your nosey ass, control freakin’ concern. If they want to have him sit on his ass all day, just what the hell difference does that make to you? You aren’t paying the officer’s paycheck, nor are you being asked to. Geeepers, people like you really piss me off with your nosey, stupid way of thinking.
  
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- Gremlin1974
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:51pm
  @RDAVIS49, I think you are going a bit over the top on Stoic One there, I think he was actually asking if he is just assigned to the school or what. To me it sounds like the local police have agreed to basically have a “sub-station” there at the school. I really don’t think it was worth all the name calling and what not.
  
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- sheriff32
  Posted on March 6, 2013 at 6:06pm
  Actually rd taxpayers are flipping the bill for this guy, therefore it is our business. So Calm down read the story again and try to keep up.
  
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summersmom
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 5:14pm
Finally! Someone with some damned brains!

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