CLAY COUNTY – Over the last three-plus years, school safety has improved in Clay County. Former Clay District Superintendent Addison Davis touted a 79% decrease in school arrests during his tenure.

“Mr. Davis has left the school district with upward momentum,” said Kenneth Wagner, the district’s first police chief.

A large part of that trajectory is an improvement in overall school safety that took place during Davis’s time in office. One of the lasting enhancements will be the formation of the police department, specifically for schools.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office, along with units from the Green Cove Springs and Orange Park departments, were responsible for patrolling the hallways during Davis’s first two years.

Wagner is a law enforcement veteran of 22 years who served mostly with the sheriff’s office before going to the school district police and leading his unit of School Resource Officers.

Wagner’s SROs are all experienced law enforcement officers. As of Aug. 1, the 47 members of the unit totaled 960 years of law enforcement experience and averaged 20.4 years of experience an officer.

The school police department has used different methods to reach children and to reduce the arrest numbers across the district.

“Through a collaborative effort with the school police and the state attorney’s office, there is a memorandum of understanding in order to use juvenile civil citations.

We use juvenile civil citations in lieu of arrests,” said Wagner.

A juvenile civil citation is seen as an effective alternative to arrest for a minor for misdemeanor infractions. The goal of the program is three-fold. First, to reduce repeat offenses, second, to improve public safety and, finally, reducing the costs to the criminal justice system in tandem with minimizing the number of juveniles with criminal records. Not every child is eligible for the Juvenile Supervision Center, as they may have committed a crime more severe than a misdemeanor, or they may have a prior record. Overall, though, the program has been effective in helping to lower the overall arrest rate.

Beyond, response reaction to infractions, though, is relationship building. Being an SRO is more than just responding when things happen.

“Many of our officers engage these students,” said Wagner. “Some of the officers use a reward type system.”

According to Wagner, one officer who is fond of collecting challenge coins keeps them on hand and buys challenge coins specific to Oakleaf Junior High and uses them as rewards.

“It’s just amazing how quickly the SROs bond with these students,” Wagner said. “And now being that this is the first time ever that we have SROs in our elementary schools, we are establishing these relationships with these younger students so that as they transition into junior and senior high school, we are setting it up to reduce these delinquent acts so that we are a resource to them from the beginning when they start schooling all the way to when they graduate and walk across that stage in their 13th year of schooling.”

According to Wagner, interim Superintendent David Broskie has not instituted any changes. They have engaged in extended conversation and Broskie has been supportive of what the school district police are doing.

Wagner said he has also seen more students express an interest in law enforcement careers, partly based on the interactions they have had with the SROs in their schools.

“You do have a lot of students, especially when they reach junior and senior high schools,” said Wagner. “Some of them are looking for where they want to go. Right here at Clay high school where I’m at, they have a law enforcement program there. There’s a lot of students that are interested.”