School resource officers return to Clark County, first at Prairie High School

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — After a nearly four-year hiatus, school resource officers will gradually return to Clark County schools, the sheriff’s office announced Friday.

According to CCSO, they will provide one deputy to work full-time at Battle Ground School District’s Prairie High School for the 2024-2025 school year.

This comes after the SRO program was paused in 2020 due to budget and staffing issues, as well as shifts to online learning during the pandemic. At the time, there were SROs in five area high schools, CCSO said.

CCSO added that when their new administration took over in early 2023, they began discussions with leaders from the Evergreen, Vancouver, and Battle Ground school districts about bringing back the SRO program.

By early 2024 – despite CCSO originally committing to providing two SROs and Clark County schools for the 2024-2025 school year and three additional SROs for two more school years – they found Battle Ground Public Schools was the only one able to fund the deployment of one SRO for the upcoming school year.

Nonetheless, the sheriff remains hopeful about the outlook of the program’s return.

“When I became Sheriff, one of my key objectives was to re-engage CCSO in the School Resource Officer program for local school districts interested in partnering with us,” said Sheriff Horch. “I’m pleased that we’ve achieved this goal and look forward to the prospect of expanding the program further if our staffing increases. I also hope to see other local law enforcement agencies join us in this important effort.”

As part of the agreement, CCSO said they will split the cost of the deputy’s salary with Battle Ground School District, with the school district paying 80% and the sheriff’s office paying 20%.

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