Eight officers to be added to Hamilton County Schools

Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond

Hamilton County Schools will be getting a bit more law and order — but officials say they could use more.

Hamilton County Commissioners approved a $1 million U.S. Department of Justice grant last week to help pay for eight additional school resource officer positions under Sheriff Jim Hammond over the next three years.

The grant will bring the county’s total SRO count to 28, including two Chattanooga Police Department officers — one at The Howard School and one at Brainerd High School.

Hammond said the new SROs would first be sent to schools that have lost officers in the past through retirement, budget cuts or other means. Extras would then be sent to the schools that “are having the most trouble,” he said.

“We’ve been in the process of evaluating all the schools. We’ll look at the stats from last year and see which schools had the most calls for service,” Hammond said. “Going forward, I would like to see us cover more schools.”