Sheriff Jim Hammond said Thursday he has been using some School Resource Officers for duties at the Silverdale Correctional Facility, but he said they will be transferred back to the schools. The county recently took over operation of Silverdale from the private firm CoreCivic.
He said of the SROs at Silverdale, “They are doing a lot of perimeter duty to make sure contraband isn’t coming in at this time. They’re also acting as transport officers. These are things they usually do in the course of duty.”
He said HCSO is in the process of hiring more workers, but that it will take several more weeks for Silverdale to be “up to speed.” He said a private company is now supplying workers to take over the work the SRO’s are currently doing.
“That will allow me to return some of the SROs,” Sheriff Hammond said. “Starting even this week, and we’ll be ramping that up.”
He said the county is “woefully short” on SROs and said the county is “nowhere near” where the HCSO wants to be. Sheriff Hammond said he did let Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson know what was going to happen, but said there was some sort of miscommunication.
“The social media stuff is so wrong,” Sheriff Hammond said. “I wish people would stop listening to social media and just get the facts before they report these things.”
“I intend to operate the SRO program, and continue to onboard as many SROs as we can. We will not achieve the goal of having an SRO in every school this year,” Sheriff Hammond said, and he said "the public’s opinion of law enforcement as of late has made recruiting people difficult.”
Sheriff Hammond also spoke about the increased amount of shakedowns in recent months. He said prisoners have complained about this, and he said the Sheriff’s Office will continue to do them. Sheriff Hammond said the HCSO has recovered around 100 “shanks,” which is a homemade weapon, as well as drugs and cellphones.
“If we have to shake down these cells every night, I’ll do it,” Sheriff Hammond said. “I take this very seriously.”
Sheriff Hammond said 35 SROs would be considered a full staff, and as of Wednesday, there are three SROs working in the schools.
“I’m always concerned about student safety, and this has been an ongoing problem ever since we took on the operation,” Sheriff Hammond said. “I’m disappointed that some of the municipalities have not stepped up and offered funding and officers to become SROs.”