Claremont Police Commissioners To Discuss Future Of Campus Police

CLAREMONT, CA — The future of on-campus police officers at Claremont schools remains up in the air as the city's police commission is expected to continue a long-simmering discussion Thursday on whether or not the school resource officer program should end.

Commissioners are expected to continue a debate that began in February on whether it should approve sending a recommendation to the Claremont Unified School District, City Council and police department to end funding for the school resource officer program, according to a staff report. Currently, the district pays the police department $75,000 each year to have an officer patrol Claremont and San Antonio high schools, as well as El Roble Intermediate School.

The police commission meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday and will be held via Zoom. The meeting can be accessed online by visiting this Zoom link or dialing 213-338-8477 and using the webinar ID 967-5141-0704.

The recommendation was made by an ad hoc committee formed last September after local advocacy groups and students at Claremont High School questioned the usefulness of having an armed officer on campus, according to the Claremont Courier.

Students said the officer created a hostile learning environment, particularly for students of color, and the money spent by the district could be better spent on providing improved on-campus mental health resources, the paper reported.

The ad hoc committee, which comprised several police commissioners, issued a report in early June that found, on a national level, school resource officers did not "improve student safety or otherwise deter illicit behaviors among students."

The committee also reported the presence of an officer on campuses has led to increases in schools resorting to suspensions or expulsions and an increase in punishments for low-level offenses.

Racial and ethnic disparities were also found in the number of citations issued by school resource officers in Claremont over the years — although a specific timeline was not provided.

“[The] citation data indicate a substantial overrepresentation of black students issued citations and a significant overrepresentation of Hispanic students issued citations,” the ad hoc committee reported. “These findings are consistent with national data showing minority and low socioeconomic status students are most commonly impacted by tasking [school resource officers] to deal with student misbehavior.”