At the June 27th meeting, Peoria City Council voted unanimously to add four school resource officers (SROs) and four school liaison officers (SLOs) to Peoria schools in the Peoria Unified School District.
Mayor Jason Beck has been vocal about his dedication for youth safety led the effort for school officers.
“We are trying to take care of our kids,” Beck said at the council meeting. “Our first priority as a city, from this dais and every employee that works in the city, I believe has the same belief — that our job is to take care of the citizenry of the city, and their safety and wellbeing is our first priority.”
The Peoria Police Department received city’s new budget that will allocate 13 new full-time equivalent positions. This will allow eight officers in schools across the city of Peoria.
The two types of officers will serve in identical roles, with the only difference being SLOs will be assigned to multiple schools and SROs will remain central to one school.
Four SROs have been approved to be assigned at Peoria’s four high schools: Liberty High School, Sunrise Mountain High School, Peoria High School, and Centennial High School. The SLOs serve in the same duties but will cover a range of elementary schools in the district.
This is the 14th consecutive year the City of Peoria council has approved the institution of SROs in high school campuses. However, this marks the first time SROs have been approved for elementary school campuses in the district.
The agreement includes an increase in salary for these officers to a yearly total of $60,000 per year, with $10,000 additional for overtime hours to cover sports games, prom and other school extracurricular activities.