ATLANTA (AP) - The superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools proposes forming the school system's own police force.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that armed school resource officers would replace school security now provided by Atlanta police officers under Superintendent Erroll Davis' proposal.
Davis told Atlanta's school board Monday that establishing an Atlanta Public Schools police force would put full-time school resource officers in schools now being served by 55 full-time and 233 part-time Atlanta officers.
Marquenta Sands, the school system's director of safety and security, says the plan has been under consideration for about a year.
Sands said school districts of Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Cherokee counties have their own security forces, although her research found "limited data showing a decrease in violence" in school districts nationwide that have formed their own police forces.
