(Seguin) — Seguin ISD board members took what administrators describe as a first step Tuesday night toward potentially establishing a new district police department.
Dr. Ruben Carrillo, Seguin ISD chief of technology and security, presented the item to the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees, outlining a resolution that would allow the district to begin exploring and ‘preparing the necessary framework to eventually make a formal decision.
“This is only the very, very, very first step that we’re going to take. Okay, what we’re basically essentially proposing to the board is for you all to consider implementing a Seguin ISD Police Department. In order to do that, we have to take some essential steps. And one of those big steps is to apply for certification with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement,” said Carrillo.
Again, he says this is only the groundwork required for the board to determine whether creating its own P-D is in the district’s best interest.
Carrillo explains the scope of what he is proposing.
“So, we’re currently servicing around 7,100 students across 13 campuses. And the project that I am proposing or putting in front of you guys will call for an ISD staff with 16 personnel. So, we’re looking to outfit the department with 13 officers, a chief of police, a detective for the ISD police department, and an administrative assistant for the office. A total of 16 personnel for the department –the annual budget for the projected ISD police department would be right at $1.58 million for an annual budget in year one,” said Carrillo
As part of his presentation, Carrillo shared the district’s current security model – a model that has operated pretty much the same for years.
“So, our current annual cost right now is right at $1.1 million. That basically comes from the model that’s listed there. So, we’ve got security officers — 70 percent of our security comes from Seguin PD as contracted SROs, 30 percent comes from private security services across the district,” said Carrillo.
Carrillo also addressed those challenges that lie within the current system.
“We currently have limitations. So, we currently have no investigative capacity across the district, and we have no traffic enforcement capability. Inconsistent coverage is really big across the district. So, we have a lot of times we have unavailable SROs or security officers, Seguin PD officers because of training that they do within the department. And we also might have municipal emergencies that draw them away from our campuses. So limited control, we can’t necessarily select, train, or retain our own officers. They’re not necessarily trained in our school-based specific needs that we need in Seguin ISD. Escalating costs –so you all are well aware of this. Every year, we do go back to an agreement with both Seguin PD and our private security partners and every year that agreement is negotiated, right? So, there is the potential of escalating costs. We have done our research with surrounding areas and what school districts are paying hourly wages for their security officers, and that is slowly but surely ticking upward. Response delays — we’re definitely dependent on external priorities, things that pull Seguin PD officers away, incidents or emergencies across the city –that leaves gaps in emergency response for our school-specific issues,” said Carrillo.
Trustees ultimately approved the resolution to move forward with the initial step in the process. However, the measure did not pass unanimously.
Trustee Lisa Burns cast the lone dissenting vote. She voiced concerns about the potential financial impact at a time when the district is operating under a deficit budget. Burns indicated she would like to see more focus placed on academics and the district’s overall financial picture before advancing discussions that could carry significant costs.
Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Jack Lee, again, reminded the board and community that Tuesday night’s action does not commit the district to forming a police department. Instead, he says it provides a pathway to gather information, evaluate options and determine whether a district-run department could offer a more cost-effective and collaborative model moving forward.
“The timeline that Dr. Carrillo has outlined here for like the hiring and the training and even the setup and the procurement, those things would happen when we do have more budget numbers to know what’s going on. So, we’re not talking about today, February 24th, that we’re establishing a $1.1 million project to get this up and moving. We’re just saying this is the initial process. Over these next several months, when Liz and I are looking at tax revenue, taxable value, state revenue, all those types of things that we’ll get started in April — and then again in June and July — as we get revisions from the appraisal district, I think that we also have the ability to come back and go, whoa, maybe we do need to hit the brakes a little bit here. And so that’s why I want to just be clear. This isn’t the green light to go for everything. This is just the initial process to set us up. At any point that we feel like we are not moving in a direction that works for the district, both financially, operationally, for students, academically, we’re going to come back to you and say, this is not the right move for us –because the last thing I want us to do is to commit to something just because we’re dead set on committing to it. No, it’s going to be what’s right for the time, for the moment that it needs to happen. Or we’ll come back to you and say, yeah, we got that wrong. We need to slow down. We need to do this a little bit differently,’ said Lee.
District officials say various components related to “planning, compliance and potential implementation” would routinely return to the board for consideration throughout these next few months. He says this action is required — ensuring multiple opportunities for review before any final action is taken by the district.