Nearly $1.5 million of state funding will support more than a dozen school resource officers in Chesapeake and Portsmouth schools.
The funding — part of a multi-year grant to increase public safety measures in elementary and secondary schools — comes from the general fund of Virginia’s state budget as part of the School Resource Officer/School Security Officer Incentive Grant Program. The funds are prioritized for localities lacking such officers in their school divisions.
Chesapeake received $330,060 in state funding that will be complemented with a $160,590 contribution from Chesapeake Public Schools. For the current school year, eight officers have been spread across all 28 elementary schools. But at Tuesday’s meeting, Chesapeake City Council approved a request from the sheriff’s office to expand the program and allocate the state funding for six additional officers, resulting in one officer being responsible for two schools.
In a memo , city staff said Chesapeake school resource officers have handled 500 incidents since the program’s inception this year.