Police officers who are also school resource officers make impact

Merced Police Officer Jason Hart knew he wanted to work with kids and make a difference in their lives when he became a police officer.

Hart is a school resource officer at Golden Valley High School, where he mentors students and works with parents and teachers.

"We create positive relationships with the students and with the teachers and the parents," Hart said. "We do that basically with community policing, where not everything we do is related to crime. We try to mentor them, we try to make ourselves more approachable."

The Merced City Council approved two separate contracts that cemented the relationship between the police department and the Merced County Office of Education, and the department and Merced Union High School District on Monday night. The contracts will cover Hart and three other school resource officers for the 2011-12 school year.

The Merced County Office of Education will pay a total of $143,078 in salary including benefits for one gang violence intervention unit officer to provide services at Valley Community School. Vehicle maintenance is about $6,565 out of the $143,078. Meanwhile, the school district will pay $343,027 for Hart and two other officers' salaries, benefits and vehicle costs for the school year. The district will also pay $1,000 overtime per site at Merced High and Golden Valley. In addition to that cost, the district will also pay $13,860 or 100 percent of the cost from its summer school budget for the cost associated with an officer during its summer school program, according to the council report.

Hart is assigned to Golden Valley, one officer will be at Merced High School and a third at East Campus Educational Center.

Last month, the city cut its general fund deficit to an estimated $2.4 million from $5.5 million after eliminating 36 city positions and using ongoing cost-effective methods to balance the city budget. The council also saved 11 positions, including the four school resource officers. The estimated $2.4 million deficit included reserves spent on the four positions, among others. A general fund balance and the city's "reserves" are considered synonymous.

The police department bases an officer at each of the city's four high schools (Merced High, Golden Valley, East Campus Educational Center and Valley High). One layoff notice had been sent to one of the four school resource officers, said Lt. Andre Matthews, who oversees them. He said the others were sent back to patrol, but would return to their assigned high schools when high school starts.

This will be Hart's fifth year as a school resource officer. The students are our future adults, he said.

"During lunch and breaks, I am constantly walking around the campus and seeing kids and talking to them, joking with them. Letting them know just cause I'm wearing a badge I'm not out to get them. I'm here to help them any way I can," he said.

He said it's rewarding to see the kids graduate.

"When they're freshmen or sophomores and they're getting into trouble, and you intervene, they turn around," Hart recalled. "On graduation day they come up and hug you. A couple of years ago they were in handcuffs."

Reporter Ameera Butt can be reached at (209) 385-2477 or abutt@mercedsun-star.com.