Legislator continues efforts to arm school resource officers

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WALA) - Along with a budget setting agenda during this year's legislative session, State Senator Rusty Glover plans to reintroduce his bill to arm school resource officers.
    
Glover said the legislators got right to work on setting the state's budget.

“What we're trying to do is consolidate and move around different types of state operations in a way to save money and to maintain efficiency,” said Glover.

Glover is reintroducing a bill this term to arm school resource officers in Mobile County and a new bill that would recognize Spring Hill College's public safety office as a state authorized police agency.

“They need a quick response program involved at the college and I know the local police are encouraging us to pass a bill to include them so that they will be able to take care of any kind of a problem or potential instances they may have on campus,” said Glover.

Glover's armed resource officer bill failed to pass the House in 2012 but he’s introducing the bill again because of the shooting at an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

He said the bill would re-arm guards at Mobile County schools.

“They've had their weapons in the past and it worked out fine, there were no instances all those years nothing even close to being a problem,” said Glover.

Glover said the state passed a law in 2005 that took away all the guns from resource officers, statewide.

“The Mobile County School board would have to vote on it, they would have the opportunity to vote yea or nay whether we would allow the Mobile County School Board resource officers to be armed,” said Glover.