Prince William County looking into hiring retired officers as armed security guards in schools

WOODBRIDGE, Va. - Prince William County Public Schools could be the first in Virginia to bring on retired law enforcement officers as armed security guards. The county's Board of Supervisors could give the plan the green light by the end of the month.

This would be a pilot program that would start with five retired law enforcement officers and a supervisor.

Right now, the county is still figuring out how much this program would cost, but $500,000 is a preliminary figure.

The school district said there are many levels of security keeping students safe and adding retired law enforcement officers to the strategy would be an additional layer of security.

Currently, there are armed school resource officers on campuses who are employed by Prince William County Police Department. But under the new plan, retired law enforcement officers serving as armed school security guards would be employed by the school district and would not have regular police powers.

"It's a suggestion that came from the police chief and the idea is that retired police officers could be hired to add to all of the training and all of the other things such as cooperation with the police department, such as the security officers we have now - all of those levels of security that are already in existence to keep our students safe," said Prince William County Public Schools spokesperson Phil Kavits.

However, we should not expect to see metal detectors in Prince William County schools anytime soon.

"I'm not aware of anything being proposed of that sort," Kavits said. "Right now, one of the things that is important is keeping our schools as welcoming environments, as good educational environments, places where students can learn and grow, and right now, we have had that. It's important to remember that statistically, schools are some of the safest places for students to be. What we are trying to do is just to continue to keep that the case."

If this pilot project works, it could expand to different schools and different areas.