More Than a Badge: How L.A. School Police Serve LAUSD Students Beyond Safety and Security

It’s roll call time!

At 6:30 a.m. weekday mornings, Senior Police Officer John Guttierez and fellow Los Angeles School Police officers get the latest breakdown of crimes in and around the schools of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Together, they ask the questions: What type of crime is in this school area? How often has a break-in happened in that school area? Does this school area have gang activity?

After reviewing the crime stats, Guttierez loads up his assigned patrol car and heads out to his “Safe Passage” patrol area with the overall responsibility: help keep students safe throughout the school day.

And that’s just the beginning of his day, says 10-year veteran Guttierez.

“We are more than just police,” said Officer Guttierez. “We wear multiple hats that are needed in a school environment.”

The Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) is responsible for the safety and security of the entire District, which includes all 1,250 schools, centers and offices, as well as the more than 700,000 students, teachers, administrators and staff.

Just like the Los Angeles Police Department, LASPD is a fully certified police department. With more than 300 sworn police officers, LASPD has an officer staffed at every LAUSD high school and most middle schools.

“We deploy our patrol officers throughout the District depending on our crime statistics,” said LASPD Chief Steve Zipperman. “Historically, police departments deploy their resources based on crime stats, based on where officers are needed…and LASPD does the same thing for our schools.”

Working Together

Not even a week after Chief Zipperman was sworn in as the new LASPD chief of police in January 2011, a student’s concealed weapon accidentally discharged in a classroom at Gardena High School injuring two students, and causing a chaotic scene at the school. Who was the first to respond, ensuring that other students and staff were safe just moments after the incident occurred? LASPD.

Soon after, LAPD and Gardena Police were on the scene and all three agencies worked as a unified command…like the gears of a watch all working together to ensure the suspect was in custody and the weapon was recovered before releasing students.

“We have to maintain a positive relationship if we’re going to provide the best quality service we can to the District and to our children that go to these schools,” said Guttierez.

It was those inner working relationships between the different municipal agencies that helped to ensure the best possible outcome at Gardena High School.

In the eyes of the LAPD, the working relationship between their department and L.A. School Police can be summarized in one word:

“Powerful,” said LAPD Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger.

“We work together seamlessly in a way that compliments each other,” said Assistant Chief Paysinger, who oversaw L.A. School Police Chief Zipperman while he was with the LAPD. “We are there to assist and compliment the LASPD during those situations.”

In years past, this wasn’t always the case, explained Paysinger.

“Years ago there wasn’t much symmetry. Most law enforcement agencies in this region worked in silos,” he said. “We had good relationships but didn’t share good information or have types of conversations that are necessary to overcome all of our challenges.”

Now, as law enforcement agencies collaborate, it has become a powerful union where each agency recognizes that they not only share borders but also share problems.

“We are much better off sharing those resources, participating in a unified way rather than in a singular way,” said Assistant Chief Paysinger. “As a result we have all experienced a rather significant reduction in crime in our communities.”

The feeling is mutual among local law enforcement agencies.

“We have a great deal of respect for school police officers,” said San Fernando Police Sgt. Al Castellon. “Our school resource officer works very closely with them in the LAUSD schools in our jurisdiction.”

In fact, many of the law enforcement agencies turn to school police as experts in dealing with students and juvenile procedures.

“There have been countless cases where they have been a great help because of their knowledge in dealing with local schools and students,” Sgt. Castellon said. “We always call on them when we deal with juveniles because of their background.”

This last January, when three separate shooting prompted multiple LAUSD schools lockdowns within two days, LASPD was an essential component in dealing with them.

“When it comes to the issue of lockdowns, we assisted with every element: the internal operations of a school, the handling of students, parent notification…all the way down to reunification,” said Chief Zipperman.

In a way, LASPD helps to bridge the gap with other municipal law enforcement agencies. They look at L.A. School Police as partners that help them understand students and schools, according to Guttierez.

“These are kids and kids do commit crimes,” said Guttierez, “But it doesn’t mean they are the worst of the worst. It just means that they made a mistake and they can overcome.”

But not all would agree that the LASPD gear is working.

Dispelling the “Rent-a-Cop” Myth

When word broke that LAPSD officer Jeff Stenroos had allegedly faked his own shooting near El Camino Real High School in January 2011, the public took to the comment sections of the various news articles to voice their criticisms of LASPD as a whole:

“Another ‘Gold Star’ for the LA Unified. At least it wasn't a teacher. Now the school cops get a turn in the frying pan,” Mark Blocker commented in an L.A. Times article.

“Whether a real cop or wanna-be cop, all cops are the same,” Mallory Davis commented in a CBS News article about the shooting.

Critics are always going to be out there, said Chief Zipperman, but that doesn’t deter the hard-working men and women of LASPD from doing their job.

“For those who say we’re the cops who couldn’t cut it, I’ll tell you this, coming from a municipal police department, the policing here and our duties and responsibilities here are far more difficult,” said Chief Zipperman. “Our officers go through the same rigorous police academy and training standards as any law enforcement in the State of California. The professionalism and pride they display on a daily basis is second to none.”

“They are here because they want to be here,” Chief Zipperman said.

Driving Force

Senior Officer David Joyce has been an officer for eight years and knew right away that he wanted to work in law enforcement and affect the lives of the youth.

Officer Roger Maniago (left), Senior Officer David Joyce, Detective Purrness Howard, Senior Officer John Guttierez and Chief Steve Zipperman (right).

“We’re working with kids at a young age and hopefully we can affect them and their future,” said Officer Joyce, who is also a training officer. “You’re not going to be able to do that working in a traditional police department.”

Det. Purrness Howard, a 23-year veteran said it was her positive experience with the school police officer at her school that led her to work with LASPD.

“It’s so wonderful to have that one-on-one connection with the students,” she said. “We do a really great job here and it’s invaluable.”

And for newbie Officer Roger Maniago, it’s the connection to students that motivated him to put on the LASPD uniform just five months ago.

“What better way to influence young kids than to be a part of school police,” he said. “Any information you can give them, anything that you can potentially help them with: their problems, with their issues…that’s why I came on.”

More Than Just a Badge

Along with being a fully functioning police officer, LASPD officers go beyond protecting students' safety by taking the initiative to interact with students in established LASPD youth programs or even just self-initiated activities.

The Police Activities League (PAL) provides safe and supervised after-school educational activities serving more than 500 students at various schools throughout the District. From the end of school until 6 p.m. each day, students can get homework assistance, play sports or participate in arts and crafts at local schools.

LASPD Explorers help to guide students pursuing a career in law enforcement. In fact, there were nearly 140 participants this year alone, becoming so large that LASPD needed a second officer in that unit to assist with the high demand.

And through a program called AMPS (Anger Management Program for Students), LASPD officers and supervisors go out to elementary schools and give presentations to 3rd and 4th grade students about issues such as bullying to help them start learning at an early age how to deal with these situations.

As Officer Joyce said, LASPD’s approach is proactive policing to reach students before hand through programs and education.

“Many municipal law enforcement agencies deal with multiple public service issues and often can only be reactive to certain crimes, while LASPD has the ability to institute proactive measures for campus safety,” Officer Joyce said. “We’re dealing with it at the root of the problem.”

Not only are officers proactively policing through established programs like PALS, Explorers and AMPS…but also through alternative means, such as peer counseling groups, visiting children in the hospital, handing out food and clothes to low-income families, or helping students with homework.

“They’re not formal things that we’re promoting but these officers are taking their own initiatives to interact with these kids on a daily basis, building relationships,” said Officer Joyce.

Det. Howard said she even taught an etiquette class to young high school girls when she was a campus police officer.

“Our officers do a myriad of things,” said Det. Howard. “I can’t tell you how invaluable the connection between students and school police is. We do so much that’s not related to arrest.”

New School Year, New Initiatives

In the new school year, LASPD is keeping up with 21st century policing by being more innovative with technology, including the launch of their new LASPD website this fall.

As sexting becomes more of a trend at the high school levels, LASPD is exploring new initiatives to help deal with that issue.

They are also becoming more involved with community relations, organizing community forums so the public knows what LASPD is doing to keep students safe.

“The more they know about us, the more transparent we’ve become,” said Chief Zipperman.

Lastly, a priority before the school year starts, LASPD sponsored a department-wide training on bullying and other campus-related issues that affect student safety.

With all the ups and downs that come along with the badge, to many officers, it’s all worth it to see the difference they are making in the lives of students.

“This is the great secret in law enforcement,” said Officer Joyce. “You get to be a police officer but you get to do all the positive things in law enforcement that you never get to do in other agencies.”