The three-ring circus surrounding who will provide school resource officers to Cumberland County Schools continues, as elected officials and administrated leaders butted heads over the future of SRO coverage at a joint city-county meeting Tuesday.
The tumult surrounding school resource officers, also known as SROs, began last summer, when the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office suddenly announced it would no longer be providing officers to the public schools within Fayetteville, Hope Mills and Spring Lake — a move that sent the municipalities into a tailspin.
Though leaders had hoped to find a solution to the SRO issue on Tuesday, what started out as a mostly cordial and structured meeting soon devolved into a series of accusatory and tense exchanges between the various participants.
What happened leading up to the meeting?
The Fayetteville Police Department ultimately agreed to provide SROs for the nine high schools located in Fayetteville city limits for the 2024-2025 school year, with one officer assigned to each school. The 10 middle schools and 29 elementary schools in Fayetteville, meanwhile, do not have SROs, although the Fayetteville Police Department now responds to calls for service from city schools (previously this was handled by the Sheriff’s Office). The city also provides traffic control officers to schools in Fayetteville.
Currently, Hope Mills provides SROs to schools located in the town, while the Sheriff’s Office continues to provide officers to Spring Lake and schools located in unincorporated areas in the county. As there are not enough SROs to staff all schools, the current staffing model rotates officers, focusing attention on schools with the most incidents, law enforcement officials said.
The agreements between the municipalities and the Cumberland County Board of Education were put in place in July 2024 and expire on June 30. The contracts include reimbursements for salaries of the SROs and related expenses.
In preparing to sign new agreements for the upcoming school year, members of the Fayetteville City Council, Cumberland County Board of Education and Sheriff’s Office met on Tuesday in the Tony Rand Student Center at Fayetteville Technical Community College. The Hope Mills mayor and police chief were also present, as well as a few members of the Cumberland County County Board of Commissioners and staff from the various governing bodies and law enforcement agencies, including Interim Fayetteville Police Chief Todd Joyce and Cumberland County Schools Superintendent Marvin Connelly. Altogether, about 40 people were included in the discussion.
Policy group makes recommendations
The meeting featured a presentation from the Science Policy Action Network (SPAN), a policy research group the city had enlisted last October to provide guidance on updating the SRO agreement for the coming years. Richard Watkins, CEO and founder of SPAN, presented the group’s recommendations, which were based on months of research at CCS, including surveys, interviews and site visits at the various schools.
SPAN recommended a roaming coverage deployment model, with SROs patrolling zones covering elementary, middle, and high schools, and rotating and responding as needed. Each school would also have a safe schools coordinator to oversee safety and organize responses, and determine if incidents require SRO intervention, social services or administrative resolution.
Safe schools coordinators are already at all public high schools and middle schools in the county, but there are about 27 elementary schools that do not have them, Watkins said. He added that they provide vital security services, including operating and performing maintenance on weapons detectors and security footage systems.
Watkin’s recommendations were met with harsh criticism from most elected officials who spoke. Their disapproval centered around the suggestion that not every school would have an SRO.
“I hear what the surveyor has said about the schools. I don’t agree with it,” said Cumberland County Sheriff Ennis Wright. “I think it should be an SRO in every school, not a roaming SRO.”
Several Cumberland County Board of Education members agreed.
“The roaming model just isn’t optimal,” Board of Education member Greg West said. “It doesn’t work. And I get there’s sentiment that law enforcement’s presence [in schools] is a negative. It’s quite the opposite.
“It’s positive, and we can support them with some other things, but it’s non-negotiable that we don’t work toward getting an SRO at every building.”
Many elected officials and appointed administrators also disagreed with the suggestion that the safe schools coordinator serve as the primary point of contact and make decisions about when an SRO was needed. Connelly said those decisions should be made by principals and SROs, not classified employees.
“As superintendent I am not comfortable and I have a pause with the recommendation that the safe schools coordinator be the primary contact,” Connelly said.
Board of Education member Susan Williams agreed. “I don’t think safe schools coordinators are the answer,” she said.
Meeting becomes confrontational
As the participants took issue with Watkins’ proposals, they began taking jibes at each other, too. Wright became defensive when Fayetteville City Council Member Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, who defended the roaming model given the staffing shortages at FPD, said that Fayetteville “didn’t drop the ball” over SROs, but “picked the ball up.” In response, Wright said, “There’s a thing called professionalism. Okay, now, ma’am, I didn’t drop the ball. We didn’t drop the ball at the Sheriff’s Office.”
There were also arguments among the group about whether CCS had provided SPAN with the data it had asked for, and whether the Sheriff’s Office had ignored a request from the city council for 911 call data at CCS schools under the Sheriff’s Office’s jurisdiction.
In regards to the dispute over the school data, Connelly said, “I’m sorry Dr. Watkins didn’t read the report.”
Hope Mills Mayor Jessie Bellflowers and Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin eventually calmed the group, urging meeting attendees to focus on working together instead of assigning blame.
What’s next?
By the time the meeting concluded, the group had only come up with one recommendation: to collaborate with each other.
Colvin said the municipalities and law enforcement agencies should come back together with a plan to gradually increase coverage of SROs at all schools. He acknowledged that getting everyone at the table on the same page would be a challenge, but emphasized the value of the day’s discussion.
“I am positive, in spite of the fact that we’ve had a few bumps in the road today with conversations,” Colvin said. “This is an unprecedented conversation we’ve had. It’s been a conversation individuals have, it’s been things that we say in our respective boards and positions, but the fact that we brought it out here today to kind of find solutions, all, both boards are to be commended.”
The agreements between the city and CCS and Hope Mills and CCS will expire on June 30, but the parties need to alert each other if they will not continue providing the service by April 15. The 2025-2025 school year for traditional schools starts on Aug. 25. Despite the disagreements, none of the elected officials expressed the desire to discontinue the SRO agreements put into place last summer. What the updated agreements will look like remains to be seen.
Government accountability reporter Evey Weisblat can be reached at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
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