EGF SRO Program Nears Return

The return of the School Resource Officer program in East Grand Forks may be near.

The city council voted in September to suspend the SRO agreement with District 595 until changes were made to a new state law. The law cast doubts over whether SRO’s were able to use force to restrain a student who may cause harm.

Both the school board and council discussed the issue at separate meetings this week. Police Chief Mike Hedlund says a revised MOU to cover the remainder of the school year is in the works.  “We have hashed over the situation about as many ways as you can.  I think we’ve finally reached a point where we find the benefits of our SRO’s back in the schools outweigh the costs of not having them in.”

The agreement could be ready for the council to review at the January 9th work session.