SD department seeks federal grant for SRO

Associated Press

VERMILLION, S.D. — The police department in Vermillion is seeking a Justice Department grant to continue to have a school resource officer.

Police Chief Matt Betzen tells The Equalizer the department hopes to be awarded the money in October.

Betzen says the department doesn't have a full-time school resource officer. Instead, it sends an officer to schools as long as the officer isn't needed elsewhere.

He says the department has "been able to pull it off" without a full-time school resource officer the last two years because it has been 100 percent staffed. However, Betzen says, staffing levels will change soon because at least one of about five officers who are also enlisted in the National Guard is scheduled for deployment.

Vermilion last received a federal grant to hire an officer in 2009.

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