NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — The New Port Richey Police Department is looking to pull its school resource officers (SROs) from the city’s middle and high schools and reallocate those positions in order to create a Community Response Team.

New Port Richey Police Chief Robert Kochen plans to ask the city council during a regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday to agree to terminate the SRO contract between the police department and school district.

Kochen says the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office would then be using its deputies as school resource officers at Gulf Middle and Gulf High School, should the city council approve the change.

“The Pasco Sheriff's Office is happy to continue assisting our partners at the Pasco County School district, just as we already do at many of the county's other middle and high schools. Keeping Pasco's children safe is of paramount importance,” said Amanda Hunter, spokesperson for the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.

Kochen said he feels creating a new community response team at the department will fill a gap.

Kochen said some of the major problems they’re seeing in the city stem from people dealing with mental health issues, struggling with addiction, and the fentanyl problem that’s present in many communities.

“A lot of times we have to arrest folks and we don’t want to do that but we have to do that and then they’re funneled through the criminal justice system to try and get them help... but we’d love to do that up front,” he said.

The officers in the community response team would have specialized training and have a proactive approach with residents.

“They would start identifying… what is the crisis? Is it drug addiction, is it mental health, is it alcoholism? What’s this person going through? And we’d communicate with that person trying to get the resources they need,” Kochen said.

If approved, the community response team would launch over the next couple of months and the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office would take over the city’s SRO program starting in August.