3 Denver school resource officers request transfers to other jobs

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Three Denver high school campuses have temporary police officers after their full-time officers asked last week to be reassigned, a Denver Police Department spokesperson said.

The school resource officers at Montbello High School, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College, and the Regis Groff Campus, which is home to two charter schools, asked to be reassigned because the police department stopped allowing them “to collect overtime for their regular assignment,” said Doug Schepman, the department’s director of communications.

The department “is ensuring there will be no reduction in officer coverage at these three schools” while it works to find new full-time school resource officers, or SROs, Schepman said.

“The plan is to provide the same level of officer coverage at these three schools during this transition, and the plan does not include sharing SROs with nearby schools,” he said.

In total, there are SROs at 13 Denver high schools.

The search for three new SROs in Denver comes shortly after a school shooting in neighboring Jeffco Public Schools. Evergreen High School had only a part-time SRO, who was not there when a student opened fire on Sept. 10, wounding two classmates before taking his own life. When students return to Evergreen High later this week, the school will have a full-time SRO.

Denver Public Schools said in a statement that it hasn’t changed its policy on police in schools. The district removed SROs in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, but reinstated them in 2023 after several shootings in and around East High School.

In its statement, DPS called the situation with the three SROs “an internal issue” within the police department. DPS said it is “working with the Denver Police Department to understand the situation and to develop a comprehensive plan to ensure continued safety within our schools.”

Schepman said the three SROs previously worked a “9/80” schedule, which meant they had one day off every two weeks. But the officers were still working on that day off, allowing them to collect overtime pay. Schepman said the arrangement, which was approved by a previous supervisor, was “inappropriate.” When the department discontinued it, the three SROs “requested transfers to different assignments,” Schepman said.

The Denver Police Department is currently covering the entire cost of the SROs stationed at Denver schools. Before 2020, the department and the school district split the cost.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.