Big overreach by school police

It’s in the nature of any bureaucracy to continually try to expand its mission in order to claim it needs a bigger staff and an ever bigger budget.

The Clark County School District police have proved to be no exception.

At www.npri.org/publications/pub_detail.asp?id=887, the Nevada Policy Research Institute offers video footage of school district police joining in a multi-jurisdictional speed limit enforcement action Oct. 26 on Boulder Highway, “far away from any schools.”

The school police have offered a parade of ever-changing rationales for such activities far from the schoolyards, as catalogued by NPRI’s Karen Gray in her accompanying Nevada Journal report.

But the fact is, Nevada Revised Statute 391.275 restricts school police jurisdiction to “the streets that are adjacent to the school property, buildings and facilities within the school district for the purpose of issuing traffic citations for violations of traffic laws and ordinances during the times that the school is in session or school-related activities are in progress.”

District police insist they’re trained to a high enough level to handle traffic stops.

But Tim Bunting, deputy director of Nevada’s Peace Officer’s Standards and Training program, responds, “Anyone can train to a higher level. But that doesn’t mean they can effect an arrest outside their jurisdiction.”

Next, the school police argued they have a right and duty to offer “mutual aid” to other law enforcement agencies.

Yes, in a rare emergency, the school cop has the same right and duty to intervene and offer assistance as does any citizen. But to claim school police are offering “mutual aid” to other agencies anytime they see fit to start ticketing traffic violators a mile from the nearest school is grasping at straws.

The matter should have put to rest last month, when the state’s Legislative Counsel Bureau issued a legal opinion denying school police authority to engage in traffic enforcement on roadways far from schools. The bureau specifically examined the force’s “mutual aid” claims under NRS 277.035 and NRS 277.110. “It is the further opinion of this office that (the statutes) do not authorize a school police officer to enforce traffic laws and ordinances and issue citations on streets that are not adjacent to school property,” the bureau noted.

If the Clark County School District needs an independent police force, its officers should operate solely on or very near school grounds.