Kirkland School Resource Officers for the 2022-2023 School Year

Published on August 23, 2022

With the first day of school just around the corner, we’d like to re-introduce you to your Kirkland School Resource Officers for the 2022-2023 school year.

The Kirkland School Resource Officer (SRO) program is a partnership between the City of Kirkland and the Lake Washington School District (LWSD). The SRO Program is meant to: help students stay physically and emotionally safe at school; give students, parents and school staff the opportunity for positive experiences with the SROs they’ll see throughout the school year; connect students with support services when they need it; and help students stay on track and out of the criminal justice system by building positive, trusted relationships.

This school year, four Kirkland SROs will spend time among LWSD schools building relationships, responding to calls, completing investigations, and providing guest instruction to the students and staff of approximately 20 LWSD elementary, middle, and high schools within the City of Kirkland. 

One of the programmatic changes that the Department and the LWSD are implementing for the 2022-2023 school year revolves around adjusting the SRO Program so that the Department won’t have a school specific SRO (i.e., Juanita High School SRO) but will instead utilize the LWSD’s model of Learning Communities (i.e., Juanita Learning Community Officer).  This philosophical change will help align the SRO program with the LWSD’s model and will encourage the further development of positive relationships between SROs and students throughout their educational journey, with the goal of keeping students physically, socially, and emotionally safe at all grade levels. 

For the 2022-2023 school year, the Department plans on dividing our SROs into two main “learning communities” that serve the students of Kirkland. By having two SROs assigned to each of the “Lake Washington” and “Juanita” learning communities, the goal is to provide for a more personalized and consistent level of service. SROs will be expected to “cross cover” and provide SRO services to all the schools in their learning community. The Department believes that a huge part of having a successful SRO program revolves around building positive relationships. The School Administration, teachers and other staff should know their officers, and the students need to be familiar with their SROs as well. By having officers clearly assigned to learning communities, it will help foster open and consistent communication between the SROs and the school administrators. It will also allow the LWSD to provide more equitable SRO services across the entire Lake Washington School District. 

For more information on Kirkland's School Resource Officer Program, please visit the SRO webpage.

Sergeant Eric Karp

 Sergeant Karp is KPD’s Community Services Unit Sergeant and has been with the Department since 2006, where he also worked as Patrol Sergeant. Outside of work, Sergeant Karp enjoys spending time in the great outdoors. Contact Sergeant Karp.

Officer Tyler Davidson

Officer Davidson has been with KPD since 2007, where he was a Family Violence Unit detective and a Patrol Officer. Before joining law enforcement, Officer Davidson played professional baseball in the minor leagues for the New York Mets. Outside of work, Officer Davidson enjoys spending time with his family and anything to do with sports. Contact Officer Davidson.

Officer Daniel Luebke

Officer Daniel Luebke has been with KPD since 2017.  Prior to his assignment as an SRO, Officer Luebke served as a Patrol Officer. Officer Luebke comes from a long line of teachers in his family and is committed to being a mentor in the Kirkland community. Contact Officer Luebke.

Officer Storm Gehrke

Officer Storm Gehrke has been an officer since 2017, working at Mercer Island PD before joining Kirkland PD, on patrol for four years before becoming an SRO. Outside of police work, Officer Gehrke spent several years as a volunteer Young Life leader with middle and high school kids, and brings his experience building positive relationships to Lake Washington School District. Contact Officer Gehrke.