Supt. Cash Takes Case for School Police Force to Nashville

The subject of police in city schools is fraught with emotion and opinions.

It’s like arguing about the Bible.  There’s something to support whatever side you’re on.

There’s research that indicates that “security resources” within the school district deliver the results needed to make sure students are safe and have an environment conducive to learning.  There’s research that suggests that city policemen assigned to schools are effective and bring an air of solemnity to the learning environment.

There is the problem of abuses of students by school security that have been covered up by severa; school districts.  There is the long history of abuse problems by commissioned city police.

Cashing Out

In short, it’s possible to argue for the position of either Memphis City Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash or Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin.  The superintendent has proposed a police force for the school district, and the police director thinks his department is better equipped to provide school security.

In other words, with research on both sides and anecdotal evidence for both positions, it comes down to who’s in charge and what his approach is.

As for us, we side with Superintendent Cash.

One Note

We are just too concerned over the police director’s one-legged stool approach to crime prevention – suppression.  The “lock ‘em up” philosophy fills the jail, but without attention to the other two legs of the stool – intervention and prevention – and represents the most expensive approach to crime-fighting.

We are also concerned about the lowered standards for Memphis policemen, and we hold out hope that Supt. Cash – with a stronger understanding of the benefits of higher education – will set a standard higher than a high school degree for his police force.

On most days, the disagreement seems more driven by personalities than policy and more by turf than theory, but it seems to us that it is the superintendent who is most able in his argument to put children at the center.  In addition, the police director has not articulated well enough an approach to balancing the need to keep the schools safe without criminalizing all behavior by students.

Most of us from middle class schools cannot imagine what it’s like.  Where we and our kids spent time sitting on the bench in the principal’s office, there is an amplified tendency in urban schools to amplify every breach of rules into a trip to Juvenile Court.  It seems to us that with officers from Memphis Police Department in city schools, this would often guarantee “a trip downtown” for too many kids and based on most of our experiences when just getting traffic tickets, we recognize the potential for policemen to overreact to any comments that question their authority or decisions.

It’s About The Kids

Director Godwin often is the epitome of the axiom, “When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”   It’s hard for us to see that being a conducive attitude for providing security in the halls of the schools in our city district.

We’ve had concerns in the past about a school police force, but much of it related to Supt. Cash’s decision to bring the head of security from his old job in Miami to Memphis and to invest so much of his honeymoon period into advocating a police force.  But on balance, his passionate determination to turn lives around and to make the district a lever for better options for children’s future  convince us that he has the better plan.

We also find it curious that Director Godwin is drawing a line in the sand about a police force in Memphis City Schools since there already are a number of them: Memphis Airport Police, University of Memphis Police, University of Tennessee Police, Memphis Housing Authority Police, Shelby County Government Police, and more.   It seems that every one of the concerns that he has put forth in opposing the schools proposal could just as easily apply to every one of these other police forces.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton – who appoints Director Godwin to his job  – has volunteered to mediate the director’s conflict with Superintendent Cash, but there’s little upside for the superintendent to engage in it.  His right to approach the Tennessee Legislature for legislation is the same as any other independent agency in Memphis, and from the sound of it, he plans to soldier on with his quest.

Putting Up Barriers

Mayor Wharton’s announced opposition to it “as an idea whose time has not fully arrived” did not offer any hints of what would have to happen for that timely arrival, but we think that Superintendent Cash deserves a chance to prove that he’s right.  As a result, we think the Legislature should approve the proposed legislation with a sunset requirement for four years, so that we can quit dealing with opinions and have practical results to measure.

State Rep. G. A. Hardaway said that he’s concerned about officer training and accountability, but we’re not sure MPD measure up so well in those categories either.  After all, when the department lowered the standards for policemen, its justification was that it could teach recruits all they needed to know in the police academy.  It was laughable to compare the academy to a college criminal justice curriculum, but at any rate, we think Memphis City Schools is capable of creating an effective training program to respond to its unique needs.

After all, it’s not like Memphis City Schools is the first district to have its own police department.  There are dozens of them.  We recognize that the analysis by city schools seems to be a conclusion in search of a justification, and we are concerned about the potential of creating an atmosphere in city schools similar to Juvenile Court with metal detectors and police officers.

It’s widely recognized by researchers that if we want to cut the rate of criminal activity of youthful offenders, it is by keeping them out of the juvenile justice system for nonviolent crimes.  “Once that door slams, the likelihood of them being involved in serious crime skyrockets,” said one.  Remember back when an elected official of Memphis was furious because students arrested in Germantown were not automatically sent to Juvenile Court and insisted that “rich kids” should be treated like “poor kids.”  She had it backwards – the “poor kids” should be treated like “rich kids” and given a second chance for nonviolence offenses.

That’s another reason that we prefer Superintendent Cash’s proposal for school security.  It rests on a solid foundation of intervention and careful handling of school incidents to make sure they do not become a slippery slope that ends at 201 Poplar.