Riley County Commissioners Ron Wells, left, Robert Boyd and Ben Wilson.
In light of the recent controversy concerning video that emerged showing a police officer getting physical with a student in South Carolina, Riley County commissioners brought the issue to Riley County Police Department Capt. Josh Kyle, who was at Monday’s meeting to give his normal report.
“I wanted to talk about working with our school districts,” Commissioner Robert Boyd said. “That little incident in Columbia, S.C., has made the national news and made law enforcement and our schools a hot topic.
“What’s our status? What are we doing to work with (USD) 383, 378 and 384?”
Kyle
Kyle said the RCPD has always been in communication with the school districts about school resource officers and that it’s been a good relationship.
He said some school officials have had concerns about body cameras, but Kyle said it’s just a new part of policing in 2015.
“My philosophy was that the (Riley County) Law Board approved an $80,000 expenditure for body-worn cameras,” he said. “Essentially, if you call a uniformed police officer, you’re calling a camera.”
When it comes to the force shown in the video that made such national headlines, Kyle said it’s his view that officers stick to law enforcement.
“When it comes to administrative issues — school administration issues — it’s best handled by administrators,” he said. “It’s not a good idea to get police involved.
“We can debate on how they handle it and whether or not it would be effective or they’re being too hard or too soft on kids, but that’s kind of where I draw the line.”
Kyle added that school districts differ in their respective approaches, too. Kyle said USD 383 — Manhattan/Ogden — doesn’t have the same views on the issue as USD 378, which runs Riley County High School.
“Riley County is much different than the city of Manhattan,” he said. “Riley County has different expectations and different desires and different needs and wants a different enforcement style than Manhattan wants and needs.”
There will be no meeting on Thursday morning for commissioners as they will be in Wichita later this week for the 40th Annual Kansas Association of Counties Conference.
