Sara Stadem | Editor
Nearly 22 years ago, a program was created that still continues to impact our youth and communities today. The School Resource Officer (SRO) program started in 1997. The SRO, who serves within the Patrol Division of the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office, is considered a specialist activity.
Currently there are five SROs that work in six school districts in Minnehaha County. Those districts included are West Central, Tri-Valley, Baltic, Dell Rapids Public, Dell Rapids St. Mary’s and Garretson.
When a SRO is assigned a school, they have many responsibilities that fall upon their shoulders. They are responsible for things such as education programs and instructions, preventing and reporting crime, campus security and safety and investigating school-related crimes. When asked about job duties, what isn’t mentioned is the impact that SROs have on our youth and communities. Nothing shows that more than the eight graduates from West Central School District that currently work for the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Department. Those currently working for the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s office include Deputy Steve Lutter (Class of 97), Captain Josh Phillips (Class off 99), Sgt. Scott Dubbe (Class of 99), Sgt. Seth Hodges (Class of 08), Detective Cody Lowe (Class of 08), Deputy Spencer Matson (Class of 09), Deputy Riley Danielsen (Class of 14) and Deputy Chase Tirrel (Class of 18). This doesn’t include the several other graduates that work in other areas such Correction Officers.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Retired Sgt. Preston Evans, who was the first SRO at West Central School District nearly 22 years ago. Although my conversation with Sgt. Evans wasn’t nearly long enough, the passion he still has all of these years later for the program, community, school and especially the students did not go unnoticed.
Evans explained back in 1997, they received a grant that required police officers to do more community service. Evans recalls he started attending fire hall meetings and city council meetings in the evenings for the neighboring communities of Hartford, Humboldt, Crooks, Colton and Lyons. He would stop in the schools to see how things were going and see if he could be of assistance in any way. Evans also helped start neighborhood watch groups.
As a result of Evans stopping in the schools, John Schmidt, Principal at West Central at the time, noticed students were talking with Evans and he was building a good repour with the students. One of those students being Captain Josh Phillips. This led to Schmidt approaching Evans to see if this was something that could be set up on a full-time basis.
Evans said the department quickly went to work on this request to see what could be done and how the program would look on a full-time basis. Evans recalls that it was a different time; most were not use to seeing officers around in schools and the community in that kind of capacity so Evans didn’t know what to expect with the program.
Captain Josh Phillips stated, “The SRO wasn’t put into the schools so much to enforce the law but rather to teach and mentor students. It helped bridge the law enforcement and community together so that the community could see the other side of the law enforcement.”
It started with splitting time between West Central and Tri-Valley. However, the program was going so well, Tri-Valley asked to have a full time SRO at their school as well.
While in the West Central school, Evans would wear many hats. He would help in the class room – he remembers teaching social studies one day, he would have a weight lifting class after school or workout with the football team and he would attend sporting events. If Evans noticed a student sitting by themselves at lunch on a regular basis, he would have lunch with them. Sometimes Evans would go to the student and say, “Hey, let’s go eat with the football team today.” He would play Four Corners at recess with the students. Evans said suddenly the students are going home and talking to their parents about it, parents talk to grandparents about it or bring it up at the coffee shop.
Next thing Evans realized was that students would come in during their free period to talk with him. He said Captain Phillips was always inquiring about his job, what it was like, the schedule and what Evans did. Captain Phillips and some friends would stop in Evans’ office regularly and talk about his job or just life in general.
“Back in the late 90’s, cops being in a school wasn’t a popular thing. Captain Phillips and Deputy (Steve) Lutter were the kids that always made it easy to come into a school,” Evans said. Evans continued, “Getting out and doing what law enforcement was supposed to be doing, interacting with the community; being in the community proactively instead of only reacting to things in the community. In my opinion it is the best program that ever happened.”
Evans indicated that the program wasn’t created to be an influence for students to want to be in law enforcement, it just turned out to be one more positive outcome from the program.
Captain Phillips said, “I always wanted to be a teacher, coach or police officer. Seeing him (Evans) inside the school, I realized I could do all three of them. I even got to coach Jr. high basketball while I was the SRO there. I wouldn’t pick any other profession.”
Promoted in 2002 to a Sergeant, Evans began overseeing the SRO program and all of the schools in the Minnehaha County. Evans was nervous as to how the recruiting would go for the program. He wasn’t sure how many officers would want to participate. However, thanks to Captain Phillips’ influence and success, recruiting wasn’t needed anymore once Phillips was in the program. Evans said he went from working hard at recruiting to having 14-15 officers wanting in the SRO program. “If it wasn’t for Josh, the program wouldn’t be where it is now,” Evans proclaimed. “One of my proudest moments was watching Captain Phillips’ career end up where it is today. The day he got promoted to Captain, watching him put on his Captain stripes will always be one of my proudest moments.”
Deputy Chase Tirrel is the youngest West Central graduate that had his career path influenced by the program. Deputy Tirrel said he started talking to Evans about law enforcement while taking dual credits his senior year and had his first ride along with Evans. Soon after that, he started running into West Central SRO in the halls, which at the time was Deputy Jenny Van Roekel. “She was super comforting. She showed me the ropes, she showed me what it took to get cooperation out of the kids,” Deputy Tirrel said. “It wasn’t all about enforcing stuff. If you want cooperation out of kids you have to be willing to put time into kids, show them you care and have fun with them and that’s what she did,” he continued.
Deputy Tirrel is currently the second youngest cop in the state of South Dakota and he gives the credit to the SRO program. “A lot of these kids will pour their hearts out to the SROs and kids want to keep those relationships. They will give the officers a hug and ask how they are doing; they will jump in to help if something were to happen to the officer just because of the relationship the officer has built with them. I wanted to get to be a part of something that important with my career.”
When asked if he plans to participate in the SRO program himself, Deputy Tirrel said after getting his “feet wet a little first,” he would really enjoy that in his future. “That’s where my career started and why not influence others the same way.”
Both Evans and Phillips believe the success of the program is based off getting the right person in the program. Things they look for with SRO is to have love for kids and want to see them succeed. They have to be able to put everything aside and work with everyone – superintendents, staff, students, parents. They need to have great communication skills and be able to get out of their comfort zones.
If a student is looking into law enforcement as a career path, Phillips encourages them to reach out to the SRO, do ride-alongs when things open back up. Most important – get the education; work in related fields while in high school and college and stay in contact with your SRO.
Evans takeaway with the program is that you just don’t realize the positive impact you can have on someone and he’s still benefiting from it today, even while he’s enjoying retirement. When Evans retired, he received letters from each student stating what he meant to them. He waited two weeks after the retirement party to read the letters. One specific letter reminded him of why he did all that he did in his career. Evans said, “The letter said, ‘I don’t know if you remember me but you talked to me one day. I was contemplating suicide until you talked to me that day. You are the reason I’m here today.’ You can go a lifetime and have no idea the affect you have on people.”