WAYZATA, Minn. — Like many departments, Wayzata police put school resource officer programming on pause this school year, citing ongoing confusion around state use-of-force laws.
So now, former SRO Brandon Haapoja is back doing regular patrols.
"We're just kind of waiting for some clarification," he said.
But he's not giving up on students. Haapoja says he frequently searches for drivers who blow past school buses when their stop signs are out and flashing red, indicating students are crossing.
It's a misdemeanor violation to pass a bus with its stop arm out without kids present. In that case, Haapoja can give the driver a citation and release them from the stop. However, it's a gross misdemeanor to pass when kids are outside and off the bus.
"We refer them in to our city attorney for charges," Haapoja explained.
Haapoja says he's caught both types of violations a total of 35 times so far this school year, so he's urging drivers to wait behind buses until their stop arms are no longer extended and flashing.
"When you're a school resource officer, you tend to get a different kind of relationship with the students and with the parents of the students, so I guess I take it a little bit more personally, that I want to be out there and protecting the kids in any way that I can," he said. "We've seen some videos where kids have gotten hurt, and that's what we're trying to prevent."
Helping his mission, he says, is the $14.7 million in public safety grants to equip more buses with cameras. Legislators passed the funding for years 2022 and 2023.
"Whereas before, we might see three or four violations and maybe only stop one car — that's a tool we can use to investigate additional violations," Haapoja said of the cameras.
According to a Minnesota Judicial Branch report, 2,004 drivers in our state were cited for stop-arm violations between 2018 and 2022.
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