The Chadron City Council this week approved a new interlocal agreement with Chadron State College to bring back the police department position of College Resources Officer. The college trustees took similar action last month.
Chadron had a CRO for about a decade before the city found itself unable to attract enough officers to meet regular needs, much less the CRO position, about the time the COVID pandemic hit..
Chadron Police Chief Rick Hickstein is excited to see the return of the position and expects to see it filled before the start of classes about a month from now.
Hickstein says the return of the CRO is a win-win situation with the college getting a full-time officer on campus whose top function is building relationships and trust between students and police.
The city benefits because the college will pick up the majority of the salary and benefit package, but the officer will still be available to the department as needed for emergency calls as well as between semesters.
There’s a similar program, the School Resource Officer, between the city and the Chadron Public Schools that Hickstein says has had similar success in building trust between students, their families, and police.