The city of Phoenix renewed its contracts to station police officers at 71 city schools for the upcoming school year. However, several Phoenix schools that want school resource officers will not yet get them, as the Phoenix Police Department doesn’t have enough officers to staff the positions.
Phoenix police is about 560 sworn officers short, and Executive Assistant Police Chief Sean Patrick Connolly said the 46 new SRO positions would have to be taken from the department’s patrol division.
“If we’re talking 46 positions, that’s four squads, 10-officer squads. And that would be incredibly challenging,” Connolly said. “It would require us to take a huge step back in the things that we’re doing.”
