City Council Rejects School Officer Plan

At a Tuesday council meeting, members voted unanimously to not help fund the proposal.

Officer Rayme is a teacher, teaching law enforcement issues to students at Davis Drive Middle School in Cary. He's also a school resource officer, patroling the halls between classes. School leaders say the students feel a better sense of comfort with Rayme around.

Principal David Coley says the students view Rayme as a resource they can go to talk to about community issues or anything that they wonder about activities going on outside of school. Officer is Rayme is on school grounds to make sure it is a safe environment with no illegal activity.

Raleigh Councilman Kieran Shanahan said he was not convinced that school resource officers were worth the money, at least not in middle schools. He recommended that the council turn down the county's request for more officers.

"We can take care of whatever problems they have on an as needed basis," Shanahan explain, "without dedicated 9, 10 or 11 Raleigh police officers who are needed on streets taking care of high priority crimes that are happening, as opposed to monitoring the halls of the middle schools."

Shanahan says the Raleigh Police Department already volunteers and does school lunch programs in the middle schools. It's just not needed to put an officer in place in each one of those schools.