Improved School Safety by Increasing Pool of Security Officers

By New Mexico Senate Republican Office 

Students and school personnel could be better protected on school grounds if there a larger pool of experience security guards for school officials to hire from. SB 148 passed the Senate today, it is on to the House.

 

Retired police officers are more likely to apply for the paid school security positions if they are allowed to continue  receiving cost-of-living or COLA increases to their retirement salaries.

 

“I want our kids to be as safe as possible. I want to reduce as many barriers as possible to help us bring in officers who are trained and ready to  protect our children and our schools,” Senator Brandt said. “ I see this as a huge benefit to our schools, these officers would not need much training because from their experience, they know what they are doing.”

 

SB148 amends the Public Employee Retirement Act (Section 10-11-8 NMSA) and (Section 10-11-118 NMSA) thus allowing ‘cost-of-living’ (COLA) adjustment increases to accrue for retired law enforcement officers hired as school security personnel.

 

The recommendation came from meetings after the school shooting in Aztec in December of 2017.