School will be starting back on August 18th and the Benton Police Department has a new page to add to the lesson plan. There will be an additional school resource officer (SRO), Officer Bobby Shell, added to the current lineup this school year along with a new SRO vehicle.

Over the summer it was decided that the Benton School District and the Benton Police Department would enter into an agreement to split the cost of adding an additional school resource officer to the program. This was done to further enhance the security of the children and teachers, and to ensure a safer environment that places the emphasis on learning and not fear.

Benton School Superintendent Jeff Collum had this to say about the partnership, “We are excited to partner with the Benton Police Department. During this past year we have taken the time to review our safety and security procedures throughout the district. We’ve instituted some changes that include: adding the additional school resource officer position, structural changes to the buildings, and expanded the school safety team that includes community members, law enforcement, and school administrators. We are moving in the right direction to ensure the safety and security of our children remains a top priority.”

Officer Shell is a 15 year law enforcement officer with over 1,500 hours of certified law enforcement training that he brings to the program. He has worked in various capacities within the department over the years including warrants, code enforcement, and the patrol division.

All three of the school resource officers are supervised by Sgt. Lisa Stuart, who took over the position in 2013 and is an 18 year veteran of the department. The other two veteran school resource officers are Ofc. Quinton Jackson and Ofc. Joey Bedsole. Ofc. Jackson has been a school resource officer for 10 years and has been with the department for over 12 years overall. Ofc. Bedsole has been a school resource officer for 6 years and has been an officer for over 9 years overall.

All four officers have attended numerous training courses through the Criminal Justice Institute, Arkansas Safe School Association, and other certified school based training classes. Our mission is to not only help protect students from dangers from the outside, but also to educate and empower them to make good choices by teaching classes on such things as Stranger Danger, Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, and Bicycle Safety.

The new school resource officer vehicle is a Chevrolet Corvette that was an asset forfeiture provided courtesy of your local drug dealer. The wrap and emergency equipment were paid for using asset forteiture, with some of the equipment being recycled from retired patrol units. A sports car was chosen due to the unique nature of it not being a traditional police vehicle, which allows for rapport building between officers and students.

The wrap design on the car was done in conjunction with High Velocity in Bryant and it’s the same general design as the SRO Ford Mustang completed in 2013. High Velocity did the final wrap on the car and Fleet Safety in North Little Rock outfitted it with the emergency equipment.