More school resource officers coming to Renton

After having one school resource officer for the entire district in the past, three high schools in Renton will have their own school resource officers for the 2024-2025 school year.

The Renton City Council’s public safety committee met with the Renton Police Department on Aug. 12 to discuss an interlocal agreement with the Renton School District for the 2024- 2025 School Resource Officer Program.

This year’s program brought forward three school resource officers instead of just one. Renton Police Department Deputy Chief Ryan Rutledge said this year, because RPD has full staffing, the department can relocate some of the positions to specialty positions like School Resource Officers.

The three officers will be Yusuf Jibril at Lindbergh High School, James Mitchell at Renton High School, and Ben Flick at Hazen High School. Councilmember Carmen Rivera said at the Aug. 12 council meeting that she had heard some concerns about having school resource officers at the high schools, but ultimately, she said it is seen as beneficial.

“We had a very robust conversation in public safety today, and though we’ve heard concerns and accolades from both the chief community council and members of the community, the school district and the council find that it will be the most beneficial for us to have these SROs,” said Rivera, who also chairs the public safety committee. “It will provide one in each high school, which I think will be incredibly beneficial … with the goal of building relationships.”

Rivera added that possibly in January 2025, the Renton Police Department will share data to show the effectiveness of the relationship building from having an SRO in the high schools. Additionally, Rivera said, any arrests that occur — unless it is a felony or a violent offense — are at the discretion of the school administration. Rivera said the goal with the school resource officers is not to arrest, but to build relationships. The council concurred with the report, and the motion for the interlocal agreement was carried.

“So school resource officers, they’re dedicated to working with the Renton School District to ensure a safe learning environment,” Deputy Chief Rutledge said. “Also to provide valuable resources to the students, the staff, the families, parents, and guardians, to prevent and solve problems with the school and community, to foster positive relationships.”

Rutledge said it’s not an enforcement role, but if there is a public safety issue at the school, the officers are on the scene to respond accordingly. He said they want to guide youth toward making good decisions in life while also teaching them to take advantage of opportunities within a safe learning environment. The police also want to help students build a trusting relationship with law enforcement so they have a trusted individual to ask questions.

Rutledge said this is also an opportunity for students to feel comfortable speaking to officers, especially if they notice something unsafe happening at the schools.

“Social media oftentimes is used for students to send threats. Those are things that we don’t want to see, but they do happen, and we want our students to feel comfortable to reach out and share that information for the greater good of the student body and the staff at the school campus,” Rutledge said. “So those relationships are key for that reason. The more comfortable students feel to report those kinds of incidents for the greater good, then we can react swiftly and appropriately. But timing, a lot of times we want to jump on those and find out the source and then take appropriate action to hold those folks accountable when necessary.”