State Senator, AG Want More Police Officers In Indiana Schools

Brandon Smith / IPBS

Attorney General Greg Zoeller (left) and State Sen. Pete Miller, R-Avon, speak at a Thursday news conference unveiling a proposed state grant program designed to put more police officers into Indiana schools.

Weeks removed from the deadliest school shooting in the nation’s history, a new proposal from Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller and a GOP state senator would help Indiana schools put more police officers in their buildings. From IPBS statehouse reporter Brandon Smith:

Sen. Pete Miller, R-Avon, is proposing legislation that would provide a grant to school corporations — up to $50,000 funding match — to add school resource officers to their schools.

School resource officers are already present in somewhere between one-quarter and one-third of all Indiana schools.

Miller’s bill would also require that all school resource officers have law enforcement certification and training to work in a school environment. He calls the proposal a first step in addressing violence like the Newtown school shooting.

“No one is suggesting that this is the end-all, be-all to school security,” Miller says.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller says while the Connecticut shooting spotlights school safety, resource officers play a larger role.

“In addition to providing school safety and some discipline actions,” Zoeller says, “[the school resource officer] also assists in implementing the school’s safety plan, supporting the school safety specialist.”

The proposal, while providing some funding to hire resource officers, would not mandate schools to participate.