Can We Discuss the Role of School Resource Officers without Losing Our Cool?

Doubling down on failure after failure is a gambling addiction, not a policing strategy

Jan 29, 2024

yellow school bus — Photo by Jannis Lucas on Unsplash

I’ve taken on Antifa and BLM in several recent articles, but nothing stirs anxiety like asking honest questions about the role of school resource officers. Getting my big break in law enforcement being handed a neglected juvenile enforcement program, my concerns regarding school postings solely have to do with policing. My position does not require the elimination of police from schools, but instead demands that we examine how our philosophy with schools deviates from all other strategies for other law enforcement objectives.

When I moved to Florida, the concept of deputies or officers in schools was foreign to me. Everyone already here, students, parents, teachers, and cops, seemed to be on board, and there were no voices loudly opposed to the concept, so it wasn’t a matter I devoted much attention or thought.

If you say, youth are our future, we agree. That said, there are three established expectations for investing in cops in schools:

1.        Safety and Security
2.        Building Positive Relationships
3.        Counseling and Education

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Police officers make poor full-time security guards

First, two school resource officers, on a 90-acre high school campus (or larger) simply cannot provide an all-hazards target hardening for the school without a large, dedicated security staff. This includes other uniformed security staff. Security is a role fulfilled by a police officer, in the same manner that an officer will provide the basic functions of traffic direction until either the traffic light comes on or cones or wreckers arrive.

Depending on the jurisdiction, a resource officer may be expected to transport their own student prisoner while a district unit waits at the school or vice versa.

Studies, not one but multiple studies, show police assigned a permanent post at a school have zero statistical impact on a school shooting scenario. SROs do effectively reduce some forms of violence in schools but they do not prevent school shootings or gun-related incidents. The prosecution of disgraced former deputy Scot Peterson and the recent 660-page DOJ report on the Uvalde, TX tragedy highlight the human and policy failures in these school shootings.

Peterson and Uvalde CISD police chief Arredondo are the most recognizable names in the school shootings. Nicholas Cruz had a recognition boost in media mentions with his failed death penalty sentencing. However, who remembers the Robb School shooter was Salvador Ramos? The actual murderer is an obscure footnote in the tragic event.

An officer’s use of hand sanitizer and the irrational public backlash became more memorable than any detail of the victims or the killer. We really needed some police leaders with a national voice to chime in and declare that carrying a heavy gun knowing that you are seconds away from a life-or-death encounter might cause an officer’s hands to perspire.

In Florida, in response to the Parkland failure of a school resource officer during a school massacre, where 17 died and 17 were wounded, mandated an officer (or guardian program member) would be posted in all schools, including charter schools. Sections 1006.07 and 1006.12, Florida Statutes, require school districts to … “cooperate with law enforcement agencies to assign one or more safe-school officers at each school facility.”

The ultimate irony: The failure of an exceptionally cowardly school resource deputy results in a law mandating hundreds more school resource officers during a staffing shortage.

Courtesy: **https://www.facebook.com/FASRO911**

We aren’t developing positive relationships

Given the circumstances of the last decade, a law enforcement presence on campus has not had the effect expected. The obvious disappointing outcome were the violent protests from 2014-2021 with the majority of those committing acts of against violence against police officers were the age group of 16-29, with “in the 2019–20 school year – the most recent with federal data – 51.4 percent of public schools possessed an armed, sworn, law‐enforcement officer.” In other words, more than half of the young (school age) people who took to the streets in blatant opposition to the profession where the product of schools with resource officers or deputies.

Our recruiting crisis demonstrates how ineffective the presence of law enforcement as a fixture in the daily lives of students has been. Among young people, we’ve never seen fewer impressed with the profession based on their desire to join the ranks. The image of a permanently posted officer at a school, has been familiarity that has bred contempt.

white table with black chairs — Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash

Counseling and Education?

I can’t count the number the first-class officers that I met during my career who served as resource officers. So many of them distinguished themselves in their roles in the schools and beyond. These cops weren’t hiding from anything and took their role seriously. They used their experience to further their careers.

However, there were some that who went native and found their true calling. They feared transfer greater than termination. Immersed in school culture, they wound up participating in non-policing functions instead of actual law enforcement work, to the tune of more than $20,000 per year (plus lucrative benefits) extra than the teachers. Counseling school age children, without a criminal predicate is a can of worms. It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that more youth are arrested and chronic absenteeism (truancy) is higher in schools with officers.

A new vision is needed

No other section of law enforcement has the exceptions, or expectations, of the school resource officer program. Contrast this with another scenario. A hotel or apartment complex of ill-repute creates 1,500 calls for service per year. An operational plan would be developed, resources would be brought from all over the jurisdiction to intervene and move the needle back to the green. Specialized units would use proven tactics to destroy trust and create doubt within the criminal element. Plans with a 30-45 day strategy would be argued, approved and executed. Stats would be collected on a daily basis and progress reports would be shared at a minimum weekly.

On a tight plan, there would not any ongoing presence following the conclusion of the operation. While there are community policing offices in some housing projects, these generally are outreach oriented rather than order maintenance.

Courtesy: **https://www.facebook.com/chicityclerk, Mayor Johnson, Center**

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As mentioned earlier, we don’t need to abandon our commitment to these programs. They are already being canceled across the country for other reasons. Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, ‘When he was running for mayor, Johnson declared that “armed officers have no place in schools in communities already struggling with over-incarceration, criminalization, profiling and mistrust.” But upon taking office, Johnson said he was OK with LSCs (local school councils) choosing whether to keep officers.’

“CPS (Chicago Public Schools) officials are telling principals to prepare for the possible removal of police officers stationed in school buildings by next fall.”

Chicago mirrors many other states and cities. “However, growing public concerns about the role of SROs in the punishment and arrest of students, particularly Black students, for minor misconduct (e.g. Gleit, 2022; Hirschfield, 2008; Homer & Fisher, 2020; Nolan, 2011), have led over 50 districts serving over 1.7 million students to end or cut back their SRO programs since May of 2020 (Riser-Kositsky et al., 2022).” Considering that there are 49.4 million public school students in the United States, and only 51.4% had SROs or equivalent, nearly 4% in the last three years is a significant erosion.

If you’re on the ground, you’re losing

The role of law enforcement in schools is endangered. On one side, it is failing on the three core promises. On the other side, it is attacked with the socialist and leftist lies like the ‘school to prison pipeline.’ As the three key justifications for officers and deputies on campus have been questioned and defeated by data, and the enemies of law and order are succeeding in making schools, students and teachers less secure through police replacement ideas, the profession needs a blank sheet to plan the future of the role of law enforcement on school campuses. I don’t know precisely what it is going to look like at the end of the process, but I envision success in a problem-oriented approach where officers are deployed on non-permanent assignments in elementary schools and long-term assignments are reserved for major campuses.

Perhaps we will build upon previous successes like the Police Explorer programs to earn a net recruiting gain from our investment in our schools. Youth are our future. Let’s invest wisely in the next generation.

Please keep all of our officers in your prayers, especially all school resource officers.