Arizona schools chief reiterates desire for resource officers to be on all campuses

PHOENIX — Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne reiterated his urge on Wednesday for all schools to have resource officers on campus.

Horne, a Republican, said at a press conference that the recommendation comes ahead of Thursday’s Phoenix Union High School District school board meeting where a student safety committee plans to recommend the return of school resource officers.

“We’re urging the same thing of obviously all the school districts and we’ve also sent a letter to mayors — or are in the process of sending letters to — asking them to cooperate with us in getting school resource officers into the schools,” Horne said at the press conference.

Phoenix Union announced in July 2020 that it would not be re-signing an agreement that would bring back school resource staffing, and funds were diverted toward a community-driven initiative on school safety.

Off-duty officers were utilized within their own districts as needed to help with law enforcement actions.

The Tempe Union High School District followed suit on October 2021, voting to phase out the use of local police as school resource officers by August 2022.

The Phoenix district oversees 23 schools and a vote on the proposal could be made at the meeting.

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