Mayfield Woods Part of Police Pilot Program

Three Howard County police officers will report to middle school for work, starting next week.

The officers will be part of a pilot program called “Passages” that will include six middle schools from Columbia, Jessup and Elkridge.

Each officer will be assigned to two schools and will report to the two sargeants in charge of the high school police officers, said Elizabeth Schroen, spokeswoman for Howard County Police Department (HCPD).

Police officers have been in Howard County high schools since the student shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, according to Schroen.

The high school initiative was originally grant-funded and then became the county’s responsibility in subsequent years, said Schroen.

Now, with funding from the county’s FY 2012 budget, $400,000 has been allocated so that four officers could be repositioned to serve in "community policing positions," three of which will be in the middle schools.

Schroen said that those three officers, who will be armed and equipped as any other officer, were veteran members of the force whose shift to the schools will leave vacancies in the department. Their positions will be filled when the new class of police recruits graduates this month, said Schroen.

As for the Passages officers, they'll begin on Jan. 17. 

“There’s a meeting on Tuesday where they meet with the principals and likely will start Wednesday,” said Schroen.

Each officer will be assigned to two schools, which Schroen said were paired as follows:

• and Patuxent Valley
• Oakland Mills and Lake Elkhorn
• Harpers Choice and Wilde Lake

"The chief is still in discussions" about what to do with the fourth community policing position that was created in the county budget, said Schroen.

Community policing is a broad term, explained Schroen.

"Normally it would not be patrol work. Officers in schools and satellite stations are part of community policing" as are the department's multicultural liaison and outreach officers, said Schroen. "The fourth position could be going to any of those."

The County Council approved the funding for the four community police officers over the summer, just before the FY 2012 budget passed.

“The research shows that the earlier you can engage students in the SRO [school resource officers] program, the better chance of influencing their decisions during the risky teenage years,” said Councilwoman Courtney Watson, whose district includes Elkridge/Ellicott City and who was one of three council members who advocated for the measure. 

Council members Calvin Ball (D-Ellicott City/Columbia/Elkridge/Jessup) and Jen Terrasa (D-North Laurel/Savage/Jessup/Columbia) were the other proponents.

"These were one on one conversations Calvin, Jen, and I had with the executive. It was a priority for three of us, so he found a way to get it done," said Watson.

“Jen, Calvin and I all have children either just through, now in, or just about to start, middle school,” said Watson.

“We keenly understand these ages from experiencing their world, and the world of their friends, firsthand," said Watson. "We felt it was a very important initiative and hope to expand it when budgetary pressures recede in future years."

The police department echoed the hope to expand the program.

Schroen said that the goal was for officers to eventually be in all middle schools. She emphasized that the program was created to promote healthy choices and did not stem from problems in any of the schools selected for the pilot.

Patti Caplan, spokeswoman for the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS), said that the schools were selected based on location, programming and feeder status. In an email, Caplan outlined the criteria:

• "Each resource officer serves two schools so it was important for those schools to be in close proximity to each other.
• "It was preferable that each school sends all its students to the same high school so that students would be able to develop a positive, trusting relationship with the high school resource officer.
• "Schools currently offering Bridges programs to students after school were a logical choice, due to the after-school component of the 'Passages' program."

Officials said that the after school hours were critical for this age group.

“Middle school is a time when kids may not have after school activities (as they do in high school), but are old enough to be home alone. The presence of an SRO in the school will provide an opportunity for mentoring about healthy choices, a positive influence, and after school programming,” said Watson.

When the Howard County chief of police reported before the school board at its Dec. 20 meeting that the program would be rolling out in the coming weeks, he echoed the importance of positive role modeling and relationship building. 

“Peers either fear the police or see them as an enemy,” said Chief William McMahon at the meeting.

“Having something like this where you’re establishing a relationship at such a young age….lets you know that the police are the ones to help you while negative influences…such as media, gang, and peer pressure—that’s the stuff that police are protecting you from," he said.

School board members Brian Meshkin and Cynthia Vaillancourt had asked for more information on the program and its goals.

“As in everything, I wish there was a way to monitor and manage this,” said Meshkin in a phone interview with Patch on Jan. 11. “I’d like for us to get to the point where [people proposing things to the school board] say 'here’s what we’re trying to achieve—here is the purpose of it and here’s how we’re going to monitor or measure it,'” he said.

This article was updated at 4:50 p.m. on Jan. 13 to reflect that three of the four community policing positions will be in middle schools, with additional information about the position in general. It was also updated at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 13 to reflect that the high school police program was originally funded by a federal grant.