With a $1 million state grant and City Council approval, the Lompoc Police Department will send a school resource officer to Lompoc Valley Middle School as early as next school year. The goal is to provide early intervention and cannabis education, as the money pulls from a public safety grant associated with Proposition 64 that legalized recreational marijuana use in 2016.
“This gives us a source to put an officer into the middle school, which we had many years ago,” Lompoc Police Chief Kevin Martin explained at the Sept. 1 City Council meeting. “It was a successful program, but we will also be able to do some education with our youth in regards to the dangers of cannabis and some of the addiction problems that they could experience later on in their lives.”
The Proposition 64 grant will be spent over five years. Lompoc is eligible to receive funding because the city permits retail sales of cannabis in storefronts.
In addition, the money continues to help pay for a cannabis compliance officer in the Police Department who oversees local permits, conducts inspections, and ensures operators comply with regulations.
City Councilmember Jeremy Ball pulled the subject from the consent agenda for further discussion, and it eventually passed with a 5-0 vote. Ball said he singled out the item because although he’s seen “good rapport” between students and resource officers at one of the district’s high schools, he knows some people are concerned.
“What are those positives?” Ball asked the police chief. “What is your policy that makes sure that there is a good relationship between the [student resource officer] and the school?”
Martin said the officer’s actions are guided by Lompoc Unified School District policy and that the district has repeatedly requested his department’s presence at the middle school.
“There are times where crimes are committed on the campus, and the [officer] has to step in and take action,” Martin explained. “Usually, it’s a weapon on the campus or something on that level, and we have arrested for that in the past.”
His department looks for candidates who’ll build relationships with students and “get people to relax a little bit around the police officers” on campus, Martin added. He said the program will expose kids to a police presence before they reach high school.
“I don’t want to see a [school resource officer]—unless he has to—handcuffing a bunch of kids, but just having the presence there I think is reassuring to a lot of parents, a lot of teachers,” Ball said. “Again, this is a request from the school district. This isn’t us as a city forcing a [school resource officer] on the school.”
Multiple community members also asked the City Council to discuss the item separately from the consent agenda. One said he’s an uncle to two young students in the district and believed the council should question whether this is the right approach for middle schoolers.
“Students who cause harm should understand its impact, accept responsibility, work to repair it, not simply be suspended, pushed out of school, or introduced to the criminal justice system,” the speaker said.
Another public commenter criticized the concept of school resource officers, referencing reports from organizations like the National Education Association.
“It disproportionately targets students of color,” the community member said. “Research shows that Black and Latino students face harsher punishments and higher arrest rates than white students when [school resource officers] are present.”
However, the police chief said he expects to see a good return from the position at Lompoc Valley Middle School.
“My hope is by getting back into the middle school, we’ll be able to break down some of those walls and get the kids to be a little bit more comfortable around the police officers and understand why we’re there,” Martin said.
This article appears in September 10 – September 17, 2026.
