By Shannon Lukens.

 

The Routt County Sheriff’s Office and Steamboat Springs Police Department are collaborating on their School Resource Officer services. Either law enforcement officer can respond, if needed, to the schools in Steamboat Springs, and also North Routt Charter School and the pre-school and elementary school in Yampa.

Here is Routt County Sheriff School Resource Officer Stephen Harbison.

“I think it’s important because we have a lot of ground to cover, a lot of schools, and we both do a lot of work together and it’s exciting and it’s fun, and we get to be there more for our schools now because of it.”

Lisa Eifling is the School Resource Officer for Steamboat Springs Police.

“This is going to be great. There’s going to be two of us walking around now and hopefully the students are going to feel comfortable coming to us with any of their issues. We want to hear about their good day and their bad day. Either way, I’m there for them.”

The School Resource officers help keep things moving smoothly and safely at the local schools. The partnership includes training the students on things like seat belt safety, driver licenses, and the dangers of drugs and alcohol. They also have some special goggles that the kids can wear that simulates intoxication. The kids would then ride a bike through an obstacle course. It simulates what it would be like driving a vehicle while intoxicated.

The Routt County Sheriff’s Office plans to hire an additional School Resource Officer sometime in the next year.