Champaign Police to protect students as SROs after 3-year pause

Jack Krumm
·2 min read

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — Champaign Police will return to two high schools this fall as school resource officers.

The program was put on pause in 2021 and will pick back up this upcoming school year. The three-year pause was a result of 21 unfilled vacancies the police department dealt with in 2021. Now, they say staffing has stabilized and they are able to return to the schools.

“The whole idea is to help bridge that gap in the community,” said Patrol Lieutenant Andre Davis.

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The Champaign Police Department will reignite its partnership with the school district starting this fall. One school resource officer will be at Central High School and another at Centennial.

“The most important thing is maintaining those relationships in the community. The school resource officers provide a platform where students can have access to a police officer. They can talk to a police officer, and not necessarily about law enforcement-created situations,” Davis said.

To fill the three-year void, the district hired a security team to patrol high schools. Davis said now, the two will work together while focusing on different aspects of safety.

“They work strictly with the school district and the policies that they will be trying to enforce. Whereas the school resource officers, they are commissioned police officers and their focus is  primarily on law enforcement.”

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Davis said the district security team gives their SROs flexibility.

“The SROs — due to, you know, maybe training commitments or other commitments that they may have with the department — are not always going to be there five days a week.”

He said having the two teams in school buildings will further safety and foster a learning environment for all.

“It was just another level of building partnerships and just continuing the relationships that we’ve always strived to to maintain.”

The department said the plan is to eventually return the district to five SROs with two covering the high schools and three for the middle schools. That will depend on maintaining staffing levels moving forward.

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