Clark County school Police on school safety

CLARK COUNTY, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) – Safety is big concern for parents when they send their kids to school.

In Clark county, the school system has its own police department dedicated to student safety.

“Our job is to circulate through the school system, make sure the doors are secure, nobody’s propped any doors open or anything like that,” said Chief of Police Keith Mullikin. “Basically we just maintain the safety of the school system until we are called for something else.”

All of the school resource officers were previously with other law enforcement agencies and have more than 25 years of experience.

Something Mullikin thinks is a good thing as it means they know how to handle stressful situations.

Mullikin says there are several great parts to having a school police department.

“The officers that are in the schools, that’s their school,” said Mullikins. “They’re not rotated out or anything.”

Mullikin and SRO Kevin Neal feel that’s important because you get to know the students in your school.

“They’ve come and told me things, ‘I think I saw something.’,” said Neal. “I’ll go and check it out and it may not be anything, but one day it could be and that’s what I want. I want them to trust me.”

According to Mullikin, all SRO’s are armed, but they haven’t had any complaints.

“I’ve actually had parents thank me and the department for being there,” said Neal.

While they haven’t had any major incidents, Neal recalled a situation from a few months ago where shots were fired near a school. He says they immediately put schools in the area on lock down until Winchester Police caught the people responsible.

“We’re all pushing hard to keep our students safe. A safe environment is a learning environment.”