Police Officers Lose Their Jobs as Bus Agency Winds Down Business, Prepares for Court Battle With Dallas

The complicated wind down of the embattled Dallas schools bus-service provider moved forward Monday with the layoff of 17 police officers.Dallas County Schools provided commissioned police officers, called school resource officers, for three area districts: Duncanville, Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Teague. But now that the agency is being disbanded, they all have to go. The state-appointed committee overseeing the shutdown of DCS does not have the legal authority to operate a police department, said acting DCS CEO Alan King.The last day on the job for the officers will be Jan. 31.The disbandment committee has agreed to sell 27 pistols to a wholesaler.Some DCS police officers may be hired in the districts where they were assigned by DCS.“We hope that they will,” Mike Moses, chair of the dissolution committee and a former DISD superintendent, said Monday at a DCS trustees meeting. “I think good people will have the opportunity to work in these situations.”Carrollton-Farmers Branch hopes to retain the officers that were working at its schools but will reassign them as security guards. Duncanville is exploring a way to keep theirs as commissioned police officers through an agreement with Mansfield ISD, which has its own police force.  Continue reading...