Mike Lowrey, the Centralia High School Resource Officer, poses for a photo with students last September in Centralia.
When Morton Police Department Reserve Officer Derek Patsey talks to a student in the Morton or Mossyrock schools, he wants them to understand that he knows where they’re coming from.
“I’ve been in a rough situation growing up, so I use my past and my background and the knowledge I’ve had through everybody that I’ve been mentored by, I use that in how I come at these schools,” said Patsey.
He’s only been on the department’s newly formed school patrol since students returned to class last month, but he can tell it’s a part of the job that’ll suit him just fine. More than a year and a half ago, Patsey decided it was time to put his educational background in criminal justice, psychology and behavioral science to use and applied to Morton’s reserve force.
From there, he learned of Chief Roger Morningstar’s desire to create a dedicated school resource-officer position.
That plan didn’t pan out perfectly.
Morningstar said that last school year he had applied for a Department of Justice grant devised to create a new policing position. Applications were judged on a point system taking into account a bevy of criteria: staffing levels, location, funding, etc. Morningstar applied for the grant, with plans to use the funds to create a permanent school resource officer position.
The grant would pay for 75 percent of the funding for the position over a three year period, and Morningstar said he met with school officials to discuss funding possibilities for the remaining 25 percent.
In the end, the department missed out on the grant by eight points.
This year, the grant process was placed on hold at the national level by an injunction by a U.S. District Court. But when the application processes re-opens, Morningstar said he intends to continue tossing his hat in the ring.
“I’ll pursue it every year until we get it,” he said.
Until then, however, he said the need was still there to get an officer inside their East Lewis County schools, and the school patrol was formed.
Patsey is the only officer on the patrol. He splits about 10 hours per week in the Morton and Mossyrock school systems. The days start with a meeting with school administration to talk about the good and the bad. The rest of his work that day is informed by those meetings. Maybe he’ll have a sit-down with a student who got into some trouble. When that happens, his goal isn’t to intimidate.
“It’s more like to … show them where they’re at right now in the situation and where we’re going to be,” he said. “I don’t want to have to discipline any kids myself by referring it to the prosecutor and stuff. I want to correct it.”
He knows where they’re coming from, he said, because he was in their shoes once. Perhaps more importantly, though, they know he knows where they’re coming from.
“You get that look of intimidation at first — when you first walk in, like, ‘Oh my gosh, why is there an officer here? What did I do?’ … I let them know right up front, this is me, this is my background, I’m human too. I’m not here to scare you, I’m here to help you.”
Morningstar said the department works hand-in-hand with the schools as part of an overall effort to help kids in the area get in touch with resources. Recently, the department kicked off a youth program at the police station, where kids can stop by Thursdays and Fridays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and every second and fourth Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.
It’s a department’s job to evolve, he said, and continue its justification to exist. He noted that, at the end of the day, the department’s goal is to eliminate its need to exist at all.
“These kids, you know, I’ve said it a hundred times, we’re not really looking at what can we do in a year, but what do we do in a decade,” said Morningstar.
As the small department, sitting snugly in the county’s east end, works to evolve its patrol and coverage of schools, larger Lewis County municipalities are sending their school resource officers back to their beats.
Centralia Police Department Officer Mike Lowrey just started his second year as the Centralia School District’s SRO. After 20 years as a patrol officer, the rooted position in the school allows for some proactive community policing, he said.
“Being on the road, you go a lot to in-progress calls. You deal with what’s going on at the moment. This is a lot of getting to know the kids, building relationships with the kids before anything comes up. So it’s vastly different,” Lowrey said.
Centralia Police SROs sign up for five years with the school, but have the option to ask for an extension.
“And I can tell you, I’ll definitely ask for an extension,” Lowrey said.
Meanwhile, in the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, Chief Deputy Bruce Kimsey said deputies are assigned to schools in rural, unincorporated areas that aren’t covered by a municipality or that don’t have their own, in-house resource officer.
With one on-shift sergeant and sometimes four to five deputies patrolling at a time, any school call becomes a priority when it flashes on the monitor, Kimsey said. Deputies are encouraged to hang around the school they’re assigned whenever they can.
“You know, show a presence, show that you’re there. Go during lunch time and wander around at least once during your work week,” Kimsey said.
