The Hollister Police Department has officially hired Bo Leland as a new school resource officer, the department announced last week.
Leland has worked at the police department for five years and was picked out of multiple applicants to be the officer in December, Hollister Police Chief David Westrick said.
“The last time we had an SRO was about three or four years ago,” he said in an interview. “It was funded between the City of Hollister and the school district.”
In December, city council members unanimously approved resources for the new officer for the Hollister School District – $140,000 split between the city and the school district.
The funding would also support bullying prevention programs and anti-gang efforts for fiscal year 2014-15. The city had applied for but was not approved for a CalGRIP – or California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention initiative grant. In 2010, the city received its first CalGRIP grant through the state for $400,000 that lasted two years.
In recent years, as local school districts have seen increased amounts of gang-related violence and public safety issues, community leaders have sought to bring on the resource officer.
Prior to working at the Hollister Police Department, Leland worked as a dispatcher at the Stockton Unified School District and as a reserve community service officer for the Stockton Police Department.
“I’m really excited,” Leland said in an interview. “This is really combining all my dreams into one.”
In college, he considered being a teacher but became an officer instead, he said.
He said his role includes checking the security apparatuses of each school, dealing with discipline and law enforcement issues, and being a positive role model for students.
“At the elementary school level, it’s going to be interacting with students and showing them the police is not a big, bad scary thing,” he said.
Westrick said that with school shootings in recent years, from Columbine to Sandy Hook, he wanted to make school safety is a priority.
“I wanted to be proactive,” the chief said.
He said he did a safety survey of all elementary and middle schools in the Hollister School District to measure their security measures and provide suggestions.
“It would be very beneficial to have an officer dedicated to the schools to bolster security at the school and be a resource at the school,” Westrick said.
This is in addition to the gang prevention and anti-bullying efforts the department has led in recent years, he said.
“We kind of wanted to shift our focus. We’ve been doing gangs, gangs, gangs,” he said.
He said Leland will be focusing on the GREAT program (Gang Resistance Education and Training) but will also be working to help train school faculty on safety measures related to public safety.
“It’s a partnership that will have a benefit for the community,” he said. “If those kids can have those positive interactions with an SRO, it will be fruitful for the whole community.”
Al DeVos, the gang prevention coordinator for the county, agrees.
“It definitely has a safety component, but it also has a larger component: building the bridge between the police and youth,” he said.
He said students learn to interact with law enforcement and connect with them.
“SROs have a few different roles. They’re educators. They’re helping kids learn life lessons (through the GREAT program),” he said.
He said the resource officer has the added benefit of helping combat the anti-social or anti-police attitudes students may feel at a younger age, which could help them avoid joining gangs when they are older.
“It all ties in. To me, it’s a perfect fit,” he said. “It’s a good deal all around.”
If a member of the community or parent would like to reach Bo Leland, his e-mail address is [email protected].
