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A number of Palm Beach County School District Police officers have sent a letter to the governor, saying that they want PBSO to take over law enforcement at public schools.
They cite a shortage of nearly 70 officers, low morale and police radios that don't work in most schools. Last week, we spoke with Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association President John Kazanjian, who contends that a merger is the only way to keep kids safe in the case of a school shooting.
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw weighs in this week. He is providing his deputies to fill the void in several schools, but is a merger something he would like to see happen?
"I'm not interested in doing that at this time. I think that they need the opportunity to get another chief on board, find out and assess where they're at in this point in time and see what the long range prospectus is here."
Bradshaw says that the school district needs to understand the sole purpose of a school police department.
"Their core mission is to protect the schools. They're not there to be a conventional police department. Their jurisdiction is on the campus or 1,000 feet off...nowhere else."
The sheriff says his agency and other local police departments are available to help when incidents go beyond that.
As for the faulty radios, he says deputies have Sheriff's Office radios when on campuses and those work.
The Palm Beach County School District contends that students and staff are safe and they have no plans to discuss a merger.