Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 55. Sunrise is 5:48 and sunset is 7:55, for 14 hours, 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 19.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Arts Commission meets at 5 PM.
On this day in 1931, the Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
Where stands the contract for a school resource officer since only yesterday? Here: (1) the city has offered an amended SRO contract to be presented at its next council meeting (5.6.25), (2) the district issued a press release on 4.30.25 in reply with several accusations about the current SRO program, and (3) the city replied later in the day to the district’s press release.
Yesterday’s post addressed the possibility of a 120-day contract extension between the city and school district for a school resource officer. See Discussion of Whitewater’s School Resource Officer Merits a 120-Day Contract Extension. A contract extension would have been a commonplace approach between parties that share a good-faith commitment to work together.
Submitting a bid to other communities, as the Whitewater Unified School District’s board did on Monday, 4.28.25, is both rash and reckless.
The three developments, since my last post, deserve attention.
First, in city press release of 4.30.25, one sees the city will present an amended agreement for the Whitewater Common Council’s 5.6.25 agenda. A contract extension was a reasonable offer; an amended agreement from the city is likely to be as well.
Second, the district’s press release is a series of accusations, disputed by the city, that could and should have been addressed in ongoing discussions. The city offered the school district the chance for that discussion, and now offers an amended agreement. There are disputes over which one should be prepared to go one’s own way — this is not one of them. We are the same community, honest to goodness. These public bodies, council and board, are not engaged in arm’s-length transactions, where after a dispute one party could easily walk away from another.
Going to bid was rash because there was no impediment against continued discussions save an impetuous outlook. This libertarian blogger has been an occasional critic of policing in this city, and I’ve made my views plain more than once, but if there’s ever been a police chief open to discussion it’s this one. If Whitewater’s school district is impatient with city officials, then it suffers habitual impatience.
Rejecting a contract with the city for an SRO is also reckless. It’s impractical to expect some other community to supply an officer to this community.1 SRO positions in other communities are overwhelmingly supplied from the community’s own department (the exceptions are communities too small to do so). The city’s own research shows this to be true. Whitewater has had for years a police department able and willing to supply an SRO. No sensible department would want to send one of their officers to another city for this hyper-local, intra-community role.
Likewise, no nearby community privatizes its SRO, and it’s easy to see why: private security will not be as accountable in either training or on the public record. (On a larger scale, it’s the reason America has public armed forces rather than a private militia. Many activities should be private; a few should be public. Policing in public schools should be a public function. Private businesses like shopping malls use security guards; public schools use public police departments.)
It would be a mistake to reject a local contract, and thereafter find that Whitewater’s schools are left with no resource officer, or an ill-considered alternative. Ignoring the city’s offer creates needless controversy.
Third, the city’s reply shows an understanding of the SRO role that the decision to solicit bids simply does not. One might say that the district acted as it did to gain attention to its position. There are better ways to gain attention. Nonetheless, no one improves his negotiating position at the cost of undermining his overall condition. The district has for years used the services of a Whitewater SRO. Turning away from modifications to the existing arrangement for improbable or impractical alternatives creates needless risk. Those risks would not be borne by another community; they would be borne by this community.
The Whitewater Common Council will place an amended SRO contract offer with the district on its 5.6.25 agenda. Discussions thereafter between the parties should strive to achieve an agreement between Whitewater’s schools and the city’s police department as promptly as possible.
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- One can be a supporter of remote work yet see that policing is not, literally, a remote work position of one person from someplace else. ↩︎
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