Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans on putting armed posse members outside of schools in his district.
KTAR reported:
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to start putting armed members of his volunteer posse near schools in the wake of the mass shooting in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Arpaio doesn’t plan to put posse members inside schools but will have them posted around the perimeters.
“Why not utilize the posse into patrolling schools in our areas?” Arpaio asks.
With what he thinks is no reason not to, he’ll start this new idea within the next week.
The specific schools are not yet known but volunteers will be spread throughout Arpaio’s jurisdiction and he has identified certain areas.
The posse members are qualified for the job, according to Arpaio.
“Our posses are well trained with over 100 hours of how to use weapons [and] they have authority under the elected sheriff,” Arpaio said. “I feel they’ll be a great asset to schools around our area.”
They would be armed with a side-arm and not a semi-automatic weapon.