BISD cuts nine BISD police positions

[Bigdog]

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/BISD-mulling-police-force-reduction-5835357.php#photo-6940392

[tvc184]

I read the BISD website on budget from a couple of years ago and it was $1.7 million. I think it dropped to about $1.2 million last year.

 

The current off duty contract labor rate of hiring police officers in this area for off duty jobs/security is $35 in most cases ($50 for short notice jobs). 

 

BISD had (I think) 24 police officers and that included usually non-working officers such as the chief and supervisors. I say non-working as they don't usually ride a district or have specific patrol assignments. Most districts hire off duty officers for their middle and high school campuses since that is where the fights and other disturbances are usually confined to. BISD has 9 such campuses. 

 

9 campuses x 8 hours a day x $35 per hour comes to $2,520 per school day. TX requires students to be in school for 180 days a year. 

 

By using contract labor from BPD, BISD can put an officer on all middle and high school campuses for the entire school day for every school day each year for $453,600. That is because BISD would only be paying for salary. There is no insurance provided to the officers, no vehicle expense, no vacations, no matching social security and medicare, no retirement or basically no other extra benefits. Not only is it a huge savings, they could actually cover way more campuses and not have officers rotating around to try and get coverage. 

 

That is why most districts, if they want police protection, hire off duty city/county officers and not try to fund their own police department. 

 

Of course if outside police officers are brought in that are not directly under the control of the school district, the district has almost no chance of controlling information (covering up) of what actually happens inside of the schools that they don't want the public to know about. 

[5GallonBucket]

They got rid of 9 positions, but some of those positions were already vacant due to several officers quitting and looking for other jobs way before school board finalized cuts.

[5GallonBucket]

couldn't agree more TVC

[TxHoops]

Excellent post Tvc. And we may be wrong but I really believe what you hinted at regarding the motivation for having its own police force. Sadly, a lot of parents who are in an uproar about the current discussions regarding the BISD PD are losing sleep over nothing. From what I have seen, contracting off duty officers is not only the fiscally correct move, they will also increase the quality of protection for their children.

[NorthoftheBorder]

As in most governments, nothing is done from a common sense or business minded perspective, but rather from a "kingdom building" or "vote buyin" perspective.  This could be used a Example A for this!!!  Of course there are lots and lots of Example A's for BISD!!