FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — On Tuesday night, the Fayetteville City Council voted 7-1 to approve a Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program, or COPS, grant application.
If awarded the grant, the Fayetteville Police Department (FPD) plans to hire two school resource officers, or SROs. These officers would start serving during the 2025-2026 school year.
The COPS hiring grant would fund $250,000 for these positions while the remaining amount of $496,100 would be split between Fayetteville Public Schools and the City of Fayetteville.
Back in 2022, the council approved a resolution to express the intent of the council to add two new SRO positions every year until each campus would have an officer on site each school day. The district currently has 11 SROs and 17 schools.
"I promise you they are making a difference every day, not just from the safety aspect, but from the relationships that they are building with our students," said Superintendent Dr. John Mulford for Fayetteville Public Schools during the public comment portion.
Councilmember D'Andre Jones said he doesn't have any kids in Fayetteville Public Schools, but he believes SROs are there to keep students safe in classrooms.
"A few years ago, there were about seven parents, African American parents, they reached out to me. They said, 'why are there no resource officers in our schools,' and they were devastated," Jones recalled.
"We cannot compromise the health and safety of our students," Jones continued. "We do know that in the age that we live in, crime is going up throughout the country, and school campuses are not excluded from that."
Councilmember Sarah Moore voted no against the resolution, the only councilmember to do so. She said she believed the school district doesn't need any more officers and she would like to look towards other resources for students.
"Where I continue to really struggle is this disproportionate outcome oftentimes that we experience within our schools. The last numbers that I saw for interactions with students, children from the 2020 to 2023 school year, show that when arrest and citation interactions, happened 60% of students were children of color," Moore said.
"Knowing that so much of the evidence points to as much as they can be a buddy, at the end of the day, if they're a confidant and a trusted friend, and they share information, they can incriminate themselves and can cause themselves harm."
Jones said he doesn't believe race is a factor.
"When we think about policing, our department is not thinking about black or white, they're thinking about safety for the kids, for the parents, for everyone," Jones said.
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