At 8:50 a.m. the bell rings, marking the start of first period for the majority of the 518 students attending Communications Arts High School in San Antonio (TX). This "school within a school" resides on the campus of Taft High School and its curriculum focuses on mastery of oral, written and visual communications. 98% of graduates attend college and it ranked #26 in the 2008 Newsweek America's Top Public High Schools. In fact, four schools within the Northside Independent School District (Northside ISD) placed in the top 800. 101 schools and facilities cover 355 square miles. The district anticipates opening eight new schools in the next three years. The fourth largest district in Texas, Northside ISD extends into Bexar, Bandera and Medina Counties. Keeping the students, staff and facilities safe are the officers of the Northside ISD Police Department.
As a division of the Northside ISD, the police department's $4.2 million budget is funded through the district's state and local sources. Currently, the agency consists of 85 sworn officers and 12 civilian personnel. From July 2007 through June 2008, Northside ISD Police Department received over 24,000 calls for service. 9-1-1 calls within the district boundaries are routed and dispatched by the department's own communications division. Licensed through the state, Northside officers have full arrest powers and authority. "Our officers have jurisdiction anywhere in the district," explains John W. Page, Northside ISD Police Department Chief of Police. "We are employed by the school district and that is our primary concern." Unlike a School Resource Officer program run through the local department, the district has more control over a district department.
Certification
In essence, every officer hired by Northside ISD Police Department is a lateral transfer. The agency does not run its own police academy. "An officer has to have their Texas Peace Officer license and one year of experience to meet our entry qualifications," Page explains. Candidates must complete 576 hours of extensive training in an approved Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (TCLEOSE) academy and pass the state licensing exam. The department also rewards prior campus experience with a salary credit of 1% per year of service.
Schedule/Assignments
Northside officers work under two categories: patrol and campus. Campus officers are assigned to a specific school and act as mentors and role models to students. All officers work 210 days per year. Campus officers spend 177 days on campus during the school year, and then switch to patrol and other duties for 33 days in June and July. Officers have Saturday, Sunday and all school and district holidays off. "This is where we are attractive over other agencies," says Page. "We can give more day shifts and Saturday/Sundays off than most agencies can."
Patrol officers protect life and property on all campuses and facilities, enforce speed zone limits, do patrol checks, handle accidents and assist other law enforcement agencies within district boundaries. They are the primary response units to schools during business hours. Officers are assigned to four schedules which rotate every three months. Patrol officers start their 210 days at the beginning of the school year. By the end of school, they have completed their assignment. "This is another attractive benefit," says Page. "Patrol officers go home at the beginning of May." They're off until the beginning of the next school year.
The department also has five floating campus officers. "They float over the entire district," Page explains. "We use them to cover campuses if an officer is absent. We use them as a specialty unit if we're having certain situations on a particular campus that needs more police services. If we don't have any of those things going on, we'll assign them to a home campus, maybe one that is more active with criminal incidents." The Northside ISD Police Department also contains a criminal investigation division and an armored division. "We have four armored vehicles running daily," says Page. "We took over all the money pick-ups in the district five to seven years ago." The department assigns one officer to teach the GREAT program as well.
Officer Basics
According to Page, school district police departments are a little unique with all pay being quoted on a daily basis. Line level officers make $141.25 per day computing to a base annual salary of $29,662. Officers top out at $45,083 annually. Although the department permits uniformed off-duty work, most officers don't need to work another job due to the overtime built directly into their schedule. Campus officers work 8.5 hour shifts resulting in 0.5 hours of overtime per day. Patrol officers work 8.25 hour shifts, bringing in 0.25 hours of overtime pay daily. Officers also cover extracurricular events. "Athletics keep us going all year long," Page explains. "The district has two major sports complexes. We use a complement of a minimum of 20 officers per stadium." Page estimates officers bring in around $10,000-$20,000 per year just in overtime.
Officers carry a .40 caliber Glock and the department issues a Bushmaster. 223 rifle to officers ranked detective and above, as well as to all supervisors. Certain assignments allow a take-home car. Northside ISD officers receive retirement benefits through the Texas Teacher's Retirement System.
Demographics
"We're so large," says Page. "Our size is just unique." A majority of the district's high schools are very large, covering 30-132 acres. "Our high schools are like small cities," Page explains. "We've got 3,000-4,000 students in some." Many campus officers are bike certified and use their bikes to get around campus. Due to its size, the district stretches over a vast area of demographics. "We have a very diverse district," Page explains. "We have areas of our district where our schools are 95% minority and other areas of our school district that is in the very elite neighborhoods, if you will, with very high dollar homes."
Although Northside ISD Police Department performs many of the same functions as a municipal department, there are some differences. "We obviously have a lot of juvenile involvement," says Page. "We're going to experience a lot more things. Unfortunately, we put some parents in jail sometimes. We get involved in custody battles. The parents bring their domestic situations to the school, especially on the elementary campus."
Changes
The school shootings in the last decade affected the way Northside ISD officers do their job. "I think it's changed the reflection of everything," Page explains. "We're a very large school district police department. We're larger than a majority of the municipal police departments in the state. We don't have a need for a SWAT team or negotiators. 100% of our officers are trained in active shooter situations and are in continuous training. If we have an active shooting situation going on in one of our schools, we're going in immediately." A small team of four or five officers enters the school. "We're going in to stop the shooter."
Along with the increased public awareness of incidents on school campuses, the proliferation of communication devices changed the way officers work. "Half the kids or more in secondary school have cell phones," Page states. "Rumors run rampant. There is so much misinformation when a situation occurs. When we have a major national situation, not just local, we have parents come up and pull kids out of school and take them home. It causes a lot of turmoil, especially at the high school level." To address these issues, Northside ISD has a very proactive communications department. "We have a great public information officer with a number of staff under him who works very closely with the local media" says Page. "We put up immediate announcements on our web site, not just the district web site. We are in the process of testing our emergency paging/texting systems. I give a lot of thanks to our communications department."
The Northside ISD Police Department is currently hiring. "We really don't have to do a whole lot of recruiting," Page says. "We usually have applicants knocking down our doors." Along with a fantastic schedule and ample financial opportunities, Northside ISD offers officers a great place to work. "We are known as a family-friendly school district," states Page. "I have to do very little discipline within my department. My people take care of me." In hiring, the agency doesn't want to just get who they want, but also be a department the applicant wants. "In the interview, we ask, why us? Almost 100% of applicants reply, 'Because of all the good things we've heard.' That's what we want."