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A Havre Police Department’s community resource officer will split his time between Havre High School and Montana State University-Northern in the coming school year.
The officer, Detective Ryan Pearson, will interact with students and develop lines of communication as well as handle any emergencies that take place.
Under the arrangement, the city of Havre will pay Pearson’s salary, while the university and the Havre School District will pay for overtime and benefits.
Havre School Superintendent Andy Carlson said that will come to about $10,000 for the school district and $10,000 for Northern.
Havre Police Chief Kirk Fitch said the idea of the program is to make students feel more comfortable working with police in school, not only when they are coming to arrest people.
Pearson will break the ice and work with students who may be involved in misguided behavior before it becomes criminal behavior, the chief said.
Fitch and Carlson said programs similar to this have been successful in many other communities.
Carlson said the officer will have an office at the high school, as he does at Northern.
There are occasions when school officials have summoned police for problems, and Pearson will be available for those incidents, he said.
But for the most part, Pearson’s job will be to work with students.
Carlson called the program “another net to help students stay out of trouble.”
“Kids will be able to see police in a different light, and police will see kids in a different light,” he said.
The officer may help out at the school’s west end at noon time when there is a rush of students leaving for lunch, he said.
“We don’t want to turn our schools into police states,” he said. “That’s not what this is about.”
“I don’t want to give the impression that the high school is out of control, and we need to call in the police,” he said.
The Havre school trustees unanimously approved the plan last week.
Northern’s spokesman Jim Potter did not return calls seeking comment.
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