After Silver Rail, Community Asks, How Many School Resource Officers — and Deputies — Are Enough? UPDATED - The Source

The topic of school resource police officers was a hot one at an Oct. 21 Bend City Council meeting, the first since the mass shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School less than a week before.

The Bend Police Department presently provides Bend-La Pine Schools with five school resource officers and a supervising sergeant, each of whom serves five to six of BLPS’ 32 schools. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office contributes three school resource deputies, with another on the way as of this week.

The Bend-La Pine Schools Resource Officer Program includes a Bend PD sergeant, five officers, and now four Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office deputies. The officers are responsible for the safety of 32 BLPS campuses. Credit: BLPS

Many in Central Oregon say that’s not enough. Others argue whether city and school officials took to heart findings of public safety reports that came out several years prior to Oct. 15.

Bernadette Strome, who is running against incumbent Melanie Kebler for Bend mayor, made an in-person public comment at the Oct 21 city council meeting, admonishing the City Council for allegedly ignoring the findings a third-party consulting group made to the Bend PD in summer 2024.

The Matrix consulting group published key staffing findings that include hiring an additional school resource sergeant and four more SROs. That report, which is available on the City of Bend’s website, was published three months before the October 2024 shooting threat at Pilot Butte Middle School, when a 12-year-old brought a loaded handgun to school, along with a list of intended targets, the Source reported. The preteen told a teacher about the gun. Within two minutes, the teacher had escorted the student outside where an onsite school resource officer then took the student into custody.

(The student was charged with suspicion of attempted murder, first-degree attempted assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Police later discovered that the student took the gun from home. A parent was subsequently charged with failing to keep the firearm locked up. It was the first time Bend PD had ever issued such a citation, the Source reported.)

“Two years ago, the City was told exactly what was needed to protect our schools,” Strome told the Council. “Yet leadership did not pass the funding to partner with the district on this very important issue.”

After the Pilot Butte incident, BLPS published its own After Action Review and Safety Improvement Plan. As the Source reported, the BLPS plan didn’t call for a wireless panic alarm system nor for facial-recognition cameras. The district did not find it needed any significant overhauls to its safety protocols or that systems needed to change. Communications, however, particularly in how potential victims were to be notified, could have been improved, according to the report.

BLPS’ review plan didn’t call for more officers in its classrooms and hallways.

Since Silver Rail, many community members have voiced support for more cops in Bend-La Pine schools, despite decades-long concerns about a “school-to-prison pipeline” that has garnered national discussions among civil liberties groups, academics and talking heads alike.

By press time, more than 3,000 folks have signed the online petition “Protect Them Before the Sirens: The Silver Rail School Safety Initiative,” calling for an SRO in each of the 32 school campuses throughout the BLPS district.

At the Oct. 21 Bend City Council meeting, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said that stationing an SRO in each of BLPS schools wasn’t on the table.

“That’s not something we can accomplish,” Krantz said, adding that a large part of an SRO’s job is mentorship. “They do take all the crimes that are reported or associated with school property. The relationships they create are incredible and long lasting. But they’re not a full-day, everyday security guard for school district locations.”

Same year as Columbine

Bend-La Pine Schools began its School Resource Officer Program in partnership with Bend PD in 1999, the same year two teenagers carried out a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

All three entities split the respective school resource program costs down the middle, with BLPS covering any overtime incurred for officers sticking around for extra-curricular activities.

SROs employed by Bend PD make about $90,000 to $125,000 (excluding health and other benefits) each year, according to the Join Bend Police website and confirmed by Bend PD spokesperson Sheila Miller. The salaries of DCSO school resource deputies fall within the normal patrol deputy base range of about $80,000 to $107,000 (excluding benefit roll-ups) according to the sheriff’s office.

If the school district and Bend PD were to station an SRO full-time at each of its 32 schools throughout the district, that would cost approximately $2.4 million each year for the additional 24 SROs.

The Bend PD’s adopted biannual budget for FY 2025-2027 is $49.3 million, while the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office operating budget is $72.2 million for FY 2026-2027.

The Bend City Council, which oversees the Bend PD budget, would have to come to agreement with BLPS for more school resource officers.

Bend PD Sgt. James Kinsella oversees the SRO program. He roams through numerous schools, covering as needed.

While giving a presentation during the Bend PD Civilian Academy on June 2, Kinsella said the district could double its number of SROs (from eight to 16) and “be just about right.”

He broke down the priorities of the SRO Program in descending order: stopping school shootings; mentoring; providing education and trainings to students and teachers and aiding with the administrative responsibilities of deciding whether students be punished with suspension or recommending charges to the district attorney’s office.

Responding to calls for service is also a large part of a school resource officer’s responsibilities.

Bend PD Spokesperson Sheila Miller declined to name the SRO assigned to Silver Rail, but she told the Source that she’s not aware of any changes to SROs assignments since Oct. 15.

The SRO assigned to Silver Rail is also responsible for Caldera High School, High Desert Middle School and R.E. Jewell, Elk Meadow and Pine Ridge elementaries.

In 2025, the SRO Program responded to 39 “community policing contacts” at Caldera; 34 at Mountain View; 32 at Bend High; 19 at Summit; 7 at Bend Technical Academy; and three at REALMS. Concurrently, positive interactions, which are called “community enhancement programming,” rang in at 75 at Caldera; 84 at Mountain View; 73 at Bend High; 91 at Summit; 11 at BTA; and three at REALMS, according to Bend PD.

“We’re building relationship with kids before they become problems,” Kinsella said. “Kids come to school with problems from home, for example.”

DCSO’s growing SRO participation

In response to the Silver Rail shooting, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office announced on Oct. 26 that it’s expanding its School Resource Deputy program to include a fourth, for which it’s advertised internally. That SRD will join the three SRDs that collectively serve BLPS and the Sisters and Redmond school districts.

The DCSO school resource deputies fall under the Patrol Division, which Capt. Mike Sundberg oversees. Presently, the DSCO school resource deputies are Tristan Cox, Jeff Woods and Casey Karpstein. The interim SRD is Deputy Josh Westfall, who previously served as an SRD for three years before rotating back to patrol.

The DCSO school resource program began about 25 years ago, department spokesman Jason Carr told the Source.

In addition to carrying out patrol duties on campus, SRDs work closely with administrators, teachers, support staff and students to develop plans to reduce dangerous situations in and around schools. SRDs are also present at many after-school events. During summer months, school resource deputies and officers return to general patrol duties throughout the greater community.