Citing hiring and retention issues, plus other challenges, Fairfax County police are recommending that the county explore privatizing its crossing guard program.
At a Board of Supervisors Safety and Security meeting last month, Assistant Police Chief Bob Blakley said looking into the alternative would ensure there’s enough coverage and avoid scenarios in which officers are pulled away from patrol to tend to a crossing.
The county police department oversees the initiative, which includes 164 crossings that have to be staffed both in the mornings and afternoons.
The department has 52 crossing guards and is authorized to staff 62. Patrol officers, meanwhile, cover all vacant crossings, which Blakley said is about 88 each day.
“We believe that there’s probably not enough positions when you look at the total workload and how many crossing guards we have,” Blakley said. “So even if we were at full capacity, we would still probably be unable to cover all of the crossings.”
The logistics of the program haven’t fluctuated much over time, Blakley said, and even recently there have been a few schools that have asked police to evaluate or add a new crossing.
The 62 crossing guard roles cost about $2 million a year, and there’s another $1.5 million in overtime allocated to relieve burden on patrol.
Tasking the school division with using a private vendor could cost between $700,000 and $1 million, according to a county presentation.
The City of Alexandria started using a private vendor to cover crossings in the fall of 2023, Blakley said. The city does still have some of its own school crossing guards, he explained, and the approach has yielded promising results.
According to Blakely, some of the current program’s policies create additional challenges. Such as the rule that an officer working a crossing can’t leave to pursue a nearby crime or other incident.
“I have been two blocks away from violent crimes in progress, and I cannot leave a school crossing once we take it,” Blakley said.
Using a private vendor, according to Blakley, would make sure “someone’s paying full-time attention to it and is 100% focused on this issue and not trying to balance mission demands.”
If the program remains under the police department’s purview, it could work with county leaders to add more designated crossing guard positions to the county’s budget. Another 20 positions is estimated to cost $700,000.
Police could also review existing crossings to see if any should be eliminated, according to the presentation.
The department can also work with the school division to determine whether anyone in school buildings can be trained if a crossing isn’t covered.
“If we can go down a path where we don’t have to have sworn officers at all of these crossings at all times, it operationally makes the police department better, which makes the schools better,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said.
Supervisor Dalia Palchik, meanwhile, said the “current system needs some fixing.”
“Whether it’s having ability to have more security for our crossings, whether it’s enforcement, engineering, education I think will only go so far in these,” Palchik said. “We need to do it.”
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
