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Thursday, August 06, 2009
School Deputies Needed on Streets
By T.J. Wilham
Journal Staff Writer
Sheriff's deputies will be absent when school resumes this month.
Citing a lack of manpower, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said he is temporarily removing all deputies assigned as Albuquerque Public Schools resource officers and reassigning them to the streets.
Sheriff's deputies were assigned full-time to seven APS schools.
With 40 vacancies, White said he didn't have enough deputies to take service calls. He said deputies can be reassigned to schools once his department is at full strength at 270 deputies, but that could take as long as six months.
"It is a necessity that we have enough deputies to answer 911 calls for service and provide backup to each other," White said. "I can't pull seven deputies from the field and put them in the schools right now."
APS spokesman Rigo Chavez said two of the schools — Rio Grande High School and Ernie Pyle Middle School — already have APS officers assigned to them. The district is trying to figure out what to do at the other schools, Chavez said. Those schools include Harrison, Polk, Taylor, Taft and Roosevelt middle schools.
"We will miss having them on campus," Chavez said. "We appreciate the help they can give us, and we understand they have a need for staff elsewhere. We will work with the sheriff's department and bring them back in when they are able to."
White said the department began experiencing staffing problems about four months ago.
White said he wanted to bring back retired deputies to work as school resources officers and place deputies currently assigned to schools back on the streets. The union rejected the plan last week.
Charles Bouyer, president of the Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriff's Association, said union membership thought it was unfair to place retired deputies in schools ahead of currently employed deputies.
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