Schools calmer thanks to resource officers Schools calmer thanks to resource officers (May 06, 2005)

by Jeb Bing

P leasanton schools are wrapping up their fourth year of having school resource officers on their campuses, a program that has seen resounding success by improving both school safety and youth attitudes toward police. Starting in 2001, Detectives Van Rader and Scott Rohovit moved out of their investigator roles and into their own offices at Foothill High and Amador Valley high schools, respectively. The program, which followed school shootings at Columbine High near Denver and at other locations across the country was funded by a three-year federal grant plus another $50,000 start-up grant from the Pleasanton school district. Both of those grants have been used up, leaving the city government with this school year's $280,000 bill to pay the cost, which is mostly for the two officers and their equipment. But nobody has complained about the cost; in fact, Police Chief Tim Neal has requests to add another resource officer to boost patrols at the city's three middle schools.

Rader and Amador Valley's new Resource Officer Mike Steiner, who replaced Rohovit last January, focus primarily on their high schools. However, they also are responsible for occasionally patrolling all other schools in Pleasanton and responding to calls there, with Steiner handling Village High School, Harvest Park Middle School and half the elementary schools. Rader has Hart and Pleasanton middle schools and the other elementary schools. The two officers work longer days than most of their police department colleagues, on duty not only long before school opens and late into the afternoon, but also covering many night events, including football and basketball games and major school dances.

They're also among the busiest on the force, handling three times the number of "incidents" as other officers. With both Foothill's and Amador Valley's student populations well over 2,000 and with teacher and employee numbers boosting those totals even higher at each school, Rader and Steiner are, for all practical purposes, the primary police force for what Chief Neal calls "cities within a city." Unlike their fellow officers who might write a traffic ticket and turn it in to the station for others to process, Rader and Steiner also handle any infraction from start to finish, whether for minor disciplinary action, such as skipping a class to more serious charges involving drugs, knives or other contraband.

Both officers are selected for these positions through a stringent interview process, with personality and communication skills considered as important as drug detection and psychological training. Rader, after four years at Foothill, is considered one of the most respected adult leaders on campus, a change from four years ago when students, parents and even some on the faculty questioned the need to have unformed police on the campus. Since then, however, the criticism has died away as campus pranks, bullying, drug use and squealing tires in the parking lot have also waned. Campuses are calmer and student confidence and camaraderie have helped the officers track down a few potential troublemakers who had talked about causing major damage before they could act.

For Rader, a 24-year police veteran who lives with his wife Janet and their twin children, Scott and Jessica, both 15, in Valley Springs east of Stockton, this has been a great assignment where he has been able to put his people and policing skills together. Steiner, a 12-year veteran who is trained as a hostage negotiator, is also the police department's only Spanish-speaking officer. He lives in Pleasanton with his wife, Tammy and their two children, Katie, 10, and Colton, 9, both students at Hearst Elementary. Rader and Steiner agree that the schools, students and their parents share benefit from safe campuses and a trouble-free learning environment.

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