Loganville City Council Approves School Resource Officer Contract

At the Sept. 12th Loganville City Council meeting, the council approved 6-0 its contract with Walton County Public Schools to keep school resource officers in Loganville schools.

Some citizens were concerned that the council was considering getting rid of the program. 

"I believe it would be fair to say that everybody on this council and the mayor are all in favor of this wonderful program," said Councilman Skip Baliles. "However, that does not alleviate us of the responsibility of the tough questions sometimes. And the tough question is, who's going to pay for it and what is a formula everybody can be happy with?" 

There's currently 4,022 students in the four schools the SRO program covers in Loganville, Councilman Rey Martinez said. The city pays $220,000 annually for the SRO program, and the school system reimburses $86,000. 

"That comes down to $25 per student," continued Martinez, who's the city's Public Safety Committee chairman. "There's no price tag on that. I've got two boys in the high school and I'm in total support of the SRO program."

Councilman Mike Jones brought up the fact that the council had discussed this issue at length at the work session Monday (Sept. 9). 

"Somehow, the ugly rumor got out that I and some of the others were seeing to no longer have SRO officers," said Jones. "That couldn't be any further from the truth. We have a superb SRO program here. Our officers do a great job. Actually, the truth is, we don't have enough."

There are currently three SROs, he continued, and the city needs to negotiate with the school board on how they could fund for more officers. 

Mayor Dan Curry noted that the three councilmembers live in Gwinnett County. So while their tax dollars are going to a service that their kids don't benefit from, they don't mind paying those taxes, he said. 

"We spend over 50 percent of your tax dollars on public safety," said Councilman Mark Kiddoo. "The mayor and council of Loganville have always invested in the safety of our residents, and that includes our children, and that's not ever going to change. ... I think we're all in agreement [that] this is something we want to continue."

"This program is not under assault, and it's not at risk," he added.

Click here to read what else occurred at the city council.