Encinitas City Council to weigh adding resource officers to schools

Update, 9:45 a.m. Sept. 18: The City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday night to direct staff to create a report on the cost of assigning school resource officers and reach out to the school districts. Officials will also explore the possibility of adding private and charter schools to the proposal.

Encinitas leaders will discuss Wednesday whether schools should have full-time sheriff’s deputies on campus. 

The proposal is spearheaded by Encinitas Councilmember Marco San Antonio, who said that the school resource officers will be sworn deputies with three roles: law enforcement, mentoring and education. In addition to responding to crime on school grounds, they will offer counseling and give regular safety lessons, the proposal said. 

“It’s not just policing, I think that’s probably the last portion of it,” San Antonio told inewsource Tuesday night. “It’s truly what the officer is able to provide in their role in the community and what they do in the community as a whole.” 

While some research suggests that school resource officers can contribute to more disciplinary actions against students, supporters say their presence increases school safety.  

San Antonio said that his background as a reserve firefighter makes public health and safety a priority to him. When he saw how many calls officers were responding to at schools, he wanted to better allocate the resources and come up with a new plan. 

The total time officers responded to schools in the 2024-25 school year amounted to 140 hours, or about 18 eight-hour work days, according to his proposal, which cites data on calls for law enforcement services to all schools within the Encinitas city limits. Deputies responded to almost 40% fewer incidents last school year, as compared to the two years prior. They handled  254 calls and deputy-initiated actions in the 2024-25 school year as opposed to 416 in the 2022-23 school year.

San Antonio said his proposal is not just about responding to calls for service, but the mentorship component that the deputies could provide at schools. He recalled having a school resource officer at his school growing up, and said that it can help make the relationship not adversarial, but someone who can help.

San Antonio said his proposal was just to get the conversation started, and he had yet to contact school district officials. 

If the council votes in favor of the proposal, the city will not immediately place the sheriff’s deputies inside of the schools, but will determine and report on the cost. The next step would be to reach out to Encinitas Union School District, Cardiff School District and San Dieguito Union High School District to work out an agreement. 

Encinitas Union Superintendent Andrée Grey said that she had not heard about the proposal prior to seeing it on the agenda. 

Edwin Mendoza, San Dieguito Union High School spokesperson, also had not heard about it until inewsource inquired about it. He said the district looked forward to working with the city council. 

“As the safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priorities, we work closely with law enforcement as appropriate,” Mendoza wrote in an email. 

inewsource did not hear back from the Cardiff School District. 

Brad Lefkowits, with the newly formed Parents of Encinitas Union School District, said that he was open to the conversation, but had questions about why it was being initiated by the city council and not from the schools. 

“I fully support them opening a dialogue with the district about this, but the way it’s worded, where it seems like they’re kind of telling the district what it needs, I found a little bit surprising,” Lefkowits said. 

He said he thought there would be mixed reactions among parents about the policy, with many supporting it and others indifferent. 

“There’s certain situations where it would obviously be welcome to have an established relationship with an officer that knows the kids, knows the campus, knows the schools, the staff,” Lefkowits said. 

Neighboring Carlsbad has school resource officers at each of the city’s high schools, according to Denise Ramirez, a spokesperson for the Carlsbad Police Department. She said the program has been successful. 

Some elementary schools in Encinitas — El Camino Creek, La Costa Heights, Mission Estancia and Olivenhain Pioneer — fall under Carlsbad’s jurisdiction and have school resource officers from Carlsbad who stop by but who are not stationed at the schools. 

La Costa Canyon High School Assistant Principal Brenda Robinette said the school is grateful for the Carlsbad officer. 

“Our students welcome our SRO and it is very helpful to have their support when needed, whether it be serious incidents like drug use or fights, or just conversations about making choices,” Robinette wrote in an email to inewsource. “Our parent community seems to be quite grateful that we have this support from Carlsbad PD.”