Twin Rivers Police Department

There has been a lot of publicity about the Twin Rivers Police Department.  Before we throw out the baby with the bath water, I want to go on record as supporting school police departments.  School police departments serve the specific function of keeping our students safe and in school. I remember riding along with a member of the Grant police department (this became the Twin Rivers Police Department) and the officer had such a good relationship with the students.  This officer was assigned to one school and continuously monitored what was going on at the school.  We saw a car pull out of the parking lot with four people in the car.  One was a student going for a job interview, one was the driver and the other two were friends.  The office sent the extra students back in and checked the driver license to make sure that the driver was who he said he was.  This action kept students in school and the driver realizing that peeling out of the parking lot was a way to get a ticket.  So, before actions are made to get rid of the Twin Rivers Police because people have been pulled over, think about the students who are safer becaue of their presensce. 

The real issue is who is in charge.  When Twin Rivers was formed out of the previous Rio Linda, North Sacramento, and Del Paso Heights elementary districts and the Grant Joint High School District, the decision was made by the Twin Rivers Board of Trustees to not have in-house legal counsel.  The Grant police chief reported to the Grant legal counsel.  Twin Rivers retains an outside legal counsil (at $100,000 a month - the subject of a future blog) so the Superintendent is overseeing the police department.  Even a micromanager cannot manage to run all facets of a school district, including the police.  The result is community distrust, finger pointing, and anger.  It is time for a change.  Vote for Annette Emery for Twin Rivers in 2012.