Lawmakers consider new bill to expand school police powers

By Victoria Spilabotte

CREATED Feb. 1, 2013

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  • Legislators will look at a new plan to hopefully improve school safety in Clark County. Video by ktnv.com

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Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- It's their job to protect students, but only in school zones. 

"It's really a simple thing," Robin Munier, Look Out Kids About, said. "It's public safety." 

So this legislative session, a new bill may give school police more authority and the chance to write tickets and make arrests outside their jurisdiction. 

"It would save Metro that might be on another call that's equally as important," Munier said. "We can solve two situations at once." 
 
The bill, written with the help of Look Out Kids About, would change school police from category two to category one and put them on the same level as police from Metro and North Las Vegas. 
 
"Given the fiscal problems we suffered, the economic downturn and all -- all our jurisdictions are trying to do more with less," Munier said. 
 
With the new bill, school police could keep tabs on kids outside school. They could write tickets in parks where kids often hang out after school unsupervised. 
 
But that leaves some students worried, school police may put their focus on the streets. 
 
"I don't think they need to worry about where everybody else is," high-school student, Raven Strid, said. "I think they need to just stay within the school."
 
"I don't want them to get carried away with something different besides protecting our school," high-school student, Amber-Lynn Twigg, said. 
 
But the bill's supporters said it's about increasing public safety, while others want the bill scrapped. 
 
"There is no fiscal responsibility attached to this whatsoever," Munier said. 
 
"It cost money alone just for the legislature to hear the bill," Steve Sanson, Veterans in Politics, said. "It's costing money right there." 
 
School police wouldn't comment on the legislation.