School resource officer develops rapport with students

The greatest success Deputy Ray Guzman achieved during his first year assigned to Carson High School was the relationship of trust he was able to build with the students.

"I'm glad to say that at the end of the year the students were coming up to me and asking me to come to their graduation," Guzman said. "They stopped looking at me as an outsider."

The Carson City Sheriff's Department and the school district each paid half of Guzman's salary to have a full-time deputy working at the schools.

"In this time and age, it's good that the district, the board and the sheriff's department decided to take a stand in being proactive and not reactive," Guzman told the school board in his annual report. "My job is to be the resource and help bridge the gap between the students and the sheriff's department. We need the communication."

In his time as the school district's deputy, Guzman pulled 187 cases. He made five felony arrests and 56 misdemeanor arrests.

However, the cases were not limited to students within the district.

"I had students from the high school that would contact me about an incident that occurred at their house," Guzman said.

He conducted 43 field interviews where he took down the suspicious person's name and documented the behavior. Many of them were 18- to 21-year-olds who were hanging out near the high school campus.

"I found a statute that says it's a misdemeanor to loiter where children congregate," Guzman said. "I enforced it."

Guzman said his activity was not limited to patrol time.

In his report to the school board, Guzman wrote:

"A school resource officer wears many hats in fulfilling the course of his duties. He is an educator in the role of guest speaking, a counselor in the role of mediation and intervention and a law enforcement officer for those who need him to be that."

The district will add an officer next year. Seventy percent of the salary will be paid through a grant and the school district and sheriff's department will split the remaining 30 percent.

School resource officer statistics

- Crime reports - 42

- Incident reports - 28

- Accident reports - 5

- Runaway arrests - 4

- Domestic battery arrests - 3

- Habitual truancy citations - 19

- Truancy pick-ups - 20

- Patrol time - 4,850 minutes

- Foot patrol time - 11,330 minutes

- Classroom guest speaker - 4 times