Minnesota families frustrated over new school resource officer law

MINNEAPOLIS —There are still lots of unanswered questions about school resource officers and their role inside Minnesota schools. 

While some police and sheriff's departments are pulling SROs out, others are opting to stay.

Rogers Police Chief Daniel Wills says his department can safely do their jobs under the terms of the new law. After speaking with the superintendent, teachers and his officers, he knew what needed to be done.

"We're going to start in the schools, but if things change to the point where we are putting our SROs in a position where there is high liability to them or they are uncomfortable being in those schools, we are going to remove those officers from those schools until this can be resolved by a special session," Wills said.

RELATED: What is the exact language of the new law concerning school resource officer conduct?

In the Anoka-Hennepin School District, 11 of 12 resource officers will not be in the building come the start of the school year. The lone department still serving the district in an SRO capacity is Brooklyn Park, where Chief Mark Bruley says he gave his resource officers the decision to stay in school or not.

"When you have these unclear laws that are contrary to what their values are, what they're trying to do as a job, it really tugs at them. What are we doing out here?" Bruley said. "The consequences are incredibly high. If a police officer screws up? What happens? They can get criminally charged, they can get sued, they can get terminated. Or their POST license can get taken away to where they can't be a police officer anymore."

Both chiefs say the law used to allow SROs to physically restrain someone who was being disruptive, but it's now changed; officers can no longer put their hands on a student to restrain them until there is a threat of bodily harm to themselves or someone else.

"When we evaluate the number of times we actually use restraints on kids, we feel the cost-benefit analysis, we feel it makes more sense to start our SROs in the schools," Wills said.

Parents in the Anoka-Hennepin district say they feel frustrated the situation has played out this way.

"I think the police departments are put in a tough situation as to how they can do things," said Ken Jahnke of Anoka. "Nobody wants to have something where they're mishandling or mistreating students, but I don't really understand what that fine edge is."

"I think it's kind of unfortunate," said Tina Claflin of Dayton. "And I think the kids deserve to have a safe place to learn and their parents deserve to know that they're safe when they go to school."  

Wills says he understands other districts are dealing with a different set of challenges than they do in Rogers. But in the end, Chief Wills says he could not turn his back on the hundreds of students and staff who depend on SROs to keep them safe.

"When we are talking about emergency situations and seconds count and we don't want to risk having a response time that may make things worse if we are waiting. We really believe that just the physical presence of that SRO is going to be a deterrence to any type of crime," he said.

RELATED: Anoka, Coon Rapids police pull school resource officers due to new Minnesota law

SROs in Rogers received additional training in de-escalation tactics and what is acceptable when handling disruptive students.

Bruley says his frustration ultimately lies with politicians who created the situation.

"They failed us," he said. "This is a failure by our lawmakers. There's no question around that. This should have never happened. We should never make a law that affects use of force and public safety and our children and get it wrong."

Republican legislators are calling for a special session to change the law.

Below is a list of Minnesota police departments and sheriff's offices that are pulling SROs from schools:

* Anoka County Sheriff's Office

* Anoka Police Department

* Blaine Police Department

* Champlin Police Department

* Coon Rapids Police Department

* Hennepin County Sheriff's Office (Rockford High School)

* Moorhead Police Department

* Otter Tail County Sheriff's Office (Underwood School)

*Wayzata Police Department