SRO Program
"Promising Strategies for Schools"
WHAT A SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER PROGRAM IS:
A School Resource Officer (SRO) program places law
enforcement officers in schools with the goal of creating and maintaining
safe, secure, and orderly learning environments for students, teachers,
and staff. With such a program, the officer represents much more than
"the cop in the shop." An SRO program reflects a
community's desire to ensure that its schools are safe, secure, and
orderly. SROs represent a proactive strategy designed to bring prevention
and intervention into the schools.
WHAT SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS (SROs) ARE:
SROs are valuable resources for their schools. They are trained to fulfill three roles.
First and foremost are law enforcement officers whose primary purpose is to "keep the peace" in their schools so that students can learn and teachers can teach;
Secondly they are law-related counselors who provide guidance on law-related issues to students and act as a link to support services both inside and outside the school environment; and thirdly they are law-related education teachers who provide schools with an additional educational resource by sharing their expertise in the classroom.
Third, beyond these identified roles and, perhaps most importantly, SROs are positive role models for many students who are not exposed to such role models in today's society. Their presence in the schools sends a strong message that violence is not acceptable.
HOW SRO PROGRAMS ARE CONDUCTED:
School systems and law enforcement agencies typically
work collaboratively to carry out SRO programs. On a daily basis, the
program depends on the working relationships which exist between the
SROs and school principals. By sharing a common vison that schools must
be safe and secure for learning to take place, the SROs
and principals become members of a team united in making sure that learning
environments are free of fear and conducive to learning.
THE "PROMISE" OF AN SRO PROGRAM:
An SRO program is a "promising" strategy because it enables communities and schools to address school violence with both prevention and intervention techniques. Having an SRO on a school campus can prevent problems from happening.
It can enhance a school's capacity to address its safety and security concerns. When problems do arise, SROs can intervene quickly to address what is taking place. SROs can contribute to safe school planning efforts and offer their schools a resource to turn to when emergencies occur.
Ultimately, the presence of an SRO assists in making the school safer and more secure for students, teachers, and staff. The entire community benefits as well because learning is more likely to take place in such an environment.
WHAT SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS DO IN SCHOOLS
The roles of a School Resource Officer (SRO) are identified as law enforcement officer, law-related counselor and law-related education teacher. A survey of SROs from across the country by the Center for the Prevention of School Violence specifically asked about these roles as well as other activities to determine what SROs are doing in the schools to which they are assigned.
(The survey was conducted at a national SRO conference. Sixty-five percent of conference attendees completed a questionnaire as part of a conference workshop.)
The impetus for putting SROs into the schools, of course, revolves around their law enforcement role. Law enforcement defines the training and describes the experience of the police officers and sheriffs' deputies who typically serve as SROs. When asked about the assignment in the schools, SROs indicated that they spend 50 percent of their time on law enforcement duties, including such activities as foot patrols of their school campuses and site inspections to ensure the safety and security of their schools. Reflective of the importance of this role is that 60 percent always wear their law enforcement uniforms and almost all (97 percent) carry their guns while providing service to their schools.
Thirty percent of the SROs' time is spent fulfilling their law-related counseling role. Ninety-eight percent of the SROs who responded said they maintain an "open-door" policy when it comes to interacting with students. This helps them fulfill their law-related counseling role. A modal number of five formal "counseling" sessions per week was identified.
Additionally, the SROs indicated that they refer students to other service agencies if additional assistance is needed. Some 94 percent responded that they make referrals to social services, 79 percent to public health agencies, 51 percent to legal aid, and 45 percent to private service agencies. (Please see the back of this page for additional information about the SROs as law-related counselors.)
Twenty percent of the SROs' time is spent on the law-related education teaching role. A median number of two classroom sessions per week was identified by responding SROs. Other research on SROs reveals that these classroom sessions usually cover law-related topics about which many students have great interest.
An important finding in the survey is that these roles appear to evolve as an SRO spends time in his/her school. For those SROs who are newly placed in schools, the role of law enforcement officer takes precedence. As time goes by, this role does not necessarily reduce, but the other roles, specifically that of law-related counselor, become more important. This likely reflects the familiarity and trust which is created through time, particularly if the SRO's assignment in the school is a stable one.
The research based upon what the SROs say themselves certainly indicates that they are doing a lot in the schools where they are present. Through the activities they carry out and the roles they fill, School Resource Officers become an additional resource to which everyone associated with the school can turn. Those who are familiar with what they are doing see them not only as a resource, but as a fundamental resource which schools will not be able to do without in the future.
SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS AND SAFE SCHOOL PLANNING
School Resource Officers (SROs) can play an important role in a school's safe school planning efforts. The components of safe school planning include the physical, social, and academic environments of a school as well as a component identified as parent involvement. An SRO can contribute to the ways in which a school addresses each of these components.
The physical environment of a school refers to its grounds and buildings, surveillance support including the use of personnel and technology, and policies and procedures which pertain to movement on the school's campus. The social environment of a school refers to the atmosphere of the school. Is it one characterized by mutual respect and freedom from fear and intimidation? The academic environment of a school references the programs and curriculum available for students. And parent involvement alludes to parental and community support for the school.
When SROs are assigned to schools as their permanent beats, they become part of the school community and quite logically can be used in any safe school planning that takes place. The mere assignment of an SRO to a school represents an attempt to improve the school, and including the SRO in a school's improvement actions makes sense. The SRO, because of his/her law enforcement training and experience, has expertise that can be used specifically when considering improvements to the safety and security of the school. The special training an SRO undergoes further enhances his/her ability to contribute to such improvement.
SROs can contribute quite naturally to improving the
safety of the physical environment of a school. SROs can assess the
school's structure to determine where potential problems exist. Multiple,
uncontrolled access points, for example, may make a school susceptible
to trespassers. SROs are able to determine if the physical environment
of the school might be contributing to the occurrence
of such a problem and can then help develop plans to eliminate it. SROs
can also help implement plans which address problems which may occur
because of the way students and staff move about the campus. SROs can
help identify the best ways to implement surveillance plans and can
help make decisions concerning how to best use personnel and technology
in plans which address the physical environment of a school.
SROs can also help address the social environment of a school. By their very presence, SROs add another figure of authority and respect to this environment. They can communicate this to students through the actions they take when dealing with students. Setting high expectations for behavior and making clear that consequences for inappropriate behavior exist become important. SROs can contribute to a school's efforts in setting high expectations and in making certain that students understand that certain behaviors will not be tolerated. SROs can contribute to the development of codes of conduct by relaying to school staff what constitutes unacceptable behavior from a legal standpoint. They can also help measure the school's social environment by employing school climate surveys which measure the safety and security concerns of students and staff. From these surveys, plans which focus upon these concerns can be developed with the ultimate goal being improvement of the social environment of the school.
SROs can contribute to plans which address the academic environment of a school as well. Through their roles as law-related counselors and law-related education teachers, SROs can supplement programs and curriculum offered by counselors and teachers. SROs are often involved, for example, with peer mediation and conflict management programs and with teaching law-related topics in classrooms. Many SROs are advisors to Students Against Violence Everywhere (S.A.V.E.) chapters. SROs can offer suggestions about these programs to other members of a school's safe school planning team and can be instrumental in carrying out these plans.
Finally, SROs can help with plans which are directed at increasing parent as well as community involvement in a school. SROs carry the philosophy of community policing into the school environment. A central principle of community policing involves the creation of partnerships between law enforcement and members of the community. SROs can help establish links to community resources. They can be part of a school's efforts to increase parent involvement, for example, by being willing to talk to parents about concerns they may have about their children's safety and security. By being a willing participant in the school community, the SROs can help plan and then carry out strategies which will create a sense of community ownership of the school and will increase community involvement in the school.
Because of what they bring to the school environment, SROs can be instrumental in their schools' safe school planning efforts. They are a resource which can be drawn upon by the schools to which they are assigned. They can contribute to plans directed at any of the identified components of safe school planning. By doing so, they can increase the safety and security of these schools in ways beyond the mere fact that they are present on a school campus.
How Will Having A School Resource Officer In The Schools Prevent or Deter Crime?
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SRO’s are proactive! Having a School Resource Officer deters crime. For example if a police vehicle is sitting at a bank, will someone rob the bank?
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SROs are trained to educate students, faculty and staff on a variety of topics.
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Law enforcement presence. Something occurs- no need to contact police; they are already there!
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Counsel students- School counselors have 200-300 kids each. In some cases, SROs will assist school counselors. Deter suicides, pregnancies and violence.
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Community Oriented Program (Police and Community working together).
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Assist school administrator on certain legal issues (Searches, Questioning, Educational Code)
