Arizona
Arizona getting creative to fill school resource officer shortage, but is it working?
PHOENIX (AZFamily) —With the start of the new school year upon us, the safety of our students is at the top of our minds.
The state is pushing to add more school resource officers or SROs, but as Arizona’s Family Investigates has reported, the police officer shortage has made that challenging.
The Arizona Department of Education said it has more school resource officers this year and is using off-duty police officers to fill some of those positions through a new initiative.
Dozens of school districts across the state that couldn’t get an SRO because of the shortage are instead using school safety officers or SSOs. These are off-duty police officers who sign up for the assignment.
The Phoenix Union High School District—one of the largest high school districts in the country—brought back SROs following an incident in September 2022. Reports of an active shooter on the campus of Central High School sent students and staff running. Fortunately, no active shooter was found.
However, it took several months for the Phoenix Police Department to come up with officers to give them.
Arizona’s Family Investigates asked Mo Canady, the Executive Director of the National Association of SROs, about that shortage.
“That’s a real problem. It’s easy for me to advocate for an SRO in every school in the country, which I believe we should have,” he responded.
His group held their annual conference in Phoenix this week.
He explained SRO’s do more than security, they serve as informal counselors and build relationships with kids.
But this shortage has impacts. It meant some SROs in our state had to cover more than one school.
Arizona’s Family Investigates asked Canady if he believed that “they can be effective in that situation.” He answered, “It’s better than no SRO at all. But it’s very difficult to be effective when you’re having to move around to different schools.”
Craig Avery, an SRO at South Valley Junior High in Gilbert, knows that all too well. When he started in that position eight years ago, he was assigned to three junior highs and 30 elementary and charter schools.
“It’s good just to be within a specific set of admin, a specific set of board directors and faculty, kind of focus my efforts and not be spread so thin,” Avery said. “Way beyond just the safety of the school, being able to educate these kids,” he continued.
To combat the shortage, state lawmakers approved using off-duty police officers. These SSOs could be at a school one or two days a week and don’t have as much training as SROs.
The state tells us it’s starting the school year with 301 SROs, up from 214 last year. They’ve also got nearly 700 SSOs.
“With the implementation of the school safety officer program, it’s given other officers the opportunity to see what it’s like to be on school campuses,” Steve Dieu, the President of the Arizona SRO Association, said. He hopes it could lead more of them to consider the position full-time.
The Phoenix Union High School District said it would have four SROs and two SSOs for this upcoming school year. They’ll each be assigned to two schools, and the district explains that these SSOs will likely be different every day.
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Arizona
Miami Lands Arizona Cornerback From the Transfer Portal
Miami continued to address a major roster need on Thursday as former Arizona cornerback Emmanuel Karnely announced his commitment to the Hurricanes over Ole Miss and Michigan. He visited Miami during the first weekend of the transfer portal after spending time in Oxford, and most recently visiting Ann Arbor.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pounder is considered the No. 6 cornerback and No. 68 overall player in the 247Sports Transfer Portal Rankings.
Karnley, a member of the 2023 recruiting class, has spent the last two seasons at Arizona. This past season, the redshirt freshman became a six-game starter for the Wildcats, only allowing 22 catches on 43 targets for 288 yards with four touchdowns allowed and five pass breakups.
The Canes are also targeting the other side of the room in Tacario Davis which would be great for the growing room. The freshman All-American OJ Frederique Jr. will also still be suiting up for the Canes next season. The depth and talent in the room will continue to grow and perform as Mario Cristobal continues to hit in the portal.
Karnely has three more years of eligibility. Karnley has become the fifth blue-chip transfer addition so far this portal season.
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Arizona
Post-holiday rush has Arizona shoppers returning gifts, spending holiday cash
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Christmas is over, but the stores and malls are busy one day later—shoppers either returning gifts that weren’t quite right or spending some of that holiday cash.
“A lot of the stores we went to, you had to wait in lines just to get from one store to the other,” said Jeannie Mac. “It was pretty busy.”
When you think of holiday shopping, you often think of items flying off the shelves.
“There are a lot of discounts at target, 50% off all decorations. You’d be surprised. The shelves are a little empty,” said shopper Joseph Caruana.
But the day after Christmas, many of those items end up back in-store. This year, returns are expected to add up to 17% of all merchandise sales, according to a recent report by the National Retail Federation. It’s about $890 billion in returned unneeded or unwanted gifts.
However, not everyone was there for returns or exchanges.
“Everyone enjoyed the presents, so didn’t have to return anything, thankfully,” said Max Miely.
Many people Arizona’s Family spoke with were mainly there looking to spend their holiday money, including Jenn Neild, who was visiting from Canada.
“We’re just looking around for some post Christmas deals, Boxing Day deals,” she said.
Boxing Day is traditionally a holiday similar to Black Friday, celebrated in the U.K. and Canada.
It was a good opportunity for shoppers who came out ready to use their holiday gift cards or, in other cases, to claim their Christmas gifts.
“We just went to go get my cousins ear pierced for her Christmas present and we’re going to be shopping for pajamas and different things,” said Morgan Uperesa, another shopper.
Because Dec. 26 and Dec. 27 are historically the busiest days for returns, the Better Business Bureau advises you to bring any receipts to the store.
If you don’t have one, they say you should know the rules on returns without it.
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Arizona
Cardinals RB James Conner Gets Encouraging Update
ARIZONA — Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon says the progress of running back James Conner has been “good” this week as the team prepares to battle the Los Angeles Rams in Week 17.
Gannon, however, wouldn’t elaborate more on Conner and didn’t reveal if he’d play in Saturday night’s primetime battle.
Conner is dealing with a knee injury suffered in the second half of Week 16’s loss to the Carolina Panthers, a 36-30 overtime defeat that saw Arizona’s postseason dreams officially end.
Conner was a limited participant in the two prior practice days for Arizona and if he is again the same for Thursday, it’s likely he’ll officially be ruled questionable when the injury report drops later today.
“We’ll see how he goes throughout the week. I know he wants to play, so we’ll do what’s best for him first and then what’s best for the team,” Gannon said of Conner earlier this week.
Once again, Conner has been one of Arizona’s top players throughout the course of the season, once again eclipsing the 1,000-yard rushing mark as the engine of the Cardinals’ offense.
The ink just dried on Conner’s two-year extension to stay in Arizona, as the running back was set to test the free agent market before the Cardinals re-signed him earlier in the year.
If he can go, Conner hopes to help play the role of spoiler in Los Angeles, as the Rams can win the NFC West with a victory over Arizona and a little help.
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