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School resource officer
The United States Department of Justice defines school resource officers (SRO) as "sworn law enforcement officers responsible for the safety and crime prevention in schools". They are employed by a local police or sheriff's department and work closely with administrators in an effort to create a safer environment for both students and staff. The powers and responsibilities are similar to those of regular police officers, as they make arrests, respond to calls for service and document incidents.
SROs typically have additional duties, including mentoring and conducting presentations on youth-related issues. They are not school-based law enforcement officers, who are typically employed by a school district's law enforcement agency rather than local or city law enforcement, though the terms are often used interchangeably.
This article is primarily about SROs in the United States, secondarily in Canada.
The first documented SRO was placed in a school in Flint, Michigan in 1953 as a community policing strategy. They strategized that placing police officers in school would improve the relationship between local police and youth. Flint, Michigan considered the program to be a success, and would become a model for future schools that would adopt the SRO program. Before the first documented SRO, the Los Angeles School Police Department formed their own adaptation of the program in 1948. It was developed to patrol and protect schools while neighborhoods began to desegregate. This is considered to be the first type of policing program in the United States.
After Flint, Michigan, municipalities across the nation implemented SRO programs with the goal of creating stronger community ties between police and the youth and to protect the safety of students. In 1966 The Chicago Police Department set a precedent for the new presence of policing in schools by establishing the first “Officer Friendly” program. Their movement served as an example for several policing programs that would follow including D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education and Training). However, these programs did not launch until the 1980s and 1990s. Fresno, California also created a new standard for school policing in 1968 to promote community relationships between the public and law enforcement.
The 1990s mark a period of substantial change to SRO programs in the United States. This change came about after the school shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 where 15 students were fatally shot by fellow peers, and Jonesboro Middle School in 1998 where four students and one teacher were fatally shot by fellow peers as well. These troubling instances raised concern about school safety leading to the most attention SRO programs had received in country history. Between 1999 and 2005, the federal government awarded more than $750 million dollars to hire nearly 7,000 school resource officers across the country to tackle the new surge of school shootings. Between 1997 and 2007, the number of SROs in schools rose by approximately 6,700.
In more recent years, school shootings like Sandy Hook and the Parkland Massacre have continued to bring attention to the need for more safety in schools. This continued to incentivize the funding of SRO programs. In 2013, President Barack Obama announced a plan to prioritize federal grant application from law enforcement agencies that were looking to hire school resources officers. The rise of school shootings is one of the most obvious reasons for the increasing presence of SROs in schools across the nation, but it is not the only one. In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a rise in juvenile crime that also led to the expansion of the SRO program. In 1994 the Congress passed the Gun-Free Schools Act in fear of the juvenile and gang violence happening across the country. The passage of this act increased SRO presence as well.
Like the United States, many secondary schools in Canada have hired security personnel to enhance the safety of staff and students. Major cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Vancouver and Winnipeg maintain their SRO programs offered by their local city police, alongside small rural towns mainly in the provinces of West Canada with their programs offered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police due to its rural nature. The SRO program in Vancouver is styled as the School Liaison Officer (SLO) Program. The City of Surrey also maintains its own SRO program, however like small rural towns is offered by the RCMP as it is its primary law enforcement agency in the city. This is set to change when the Surrey Police Service is fully implemented in November 2024, replacing the currently existing RCMP detachment in Surrey.
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School resource officer
The United States Department of Justice defines school resource officers (SRO) as "sworn law enforcement officers responsible for the safety and crime prevention in schools". They are employed by a local police or sheriff's department and work closely with administrators in an effort to create a safer environment for both students and staff. The powers and responsibilities are similar to those of regular police officers, as they make arrests, respond to calls for service and document incidents.
SROs typically have additional duties, including mentoring and conducting presentations on youth-related issues. They are not school-based law enforcement officers, who are typically employed by a school district's law enforcement agency rather than local or city law enforcement, though the terms are often used interchangeably.
This article is primarily about SROs in the United States, secondarily in Canada.
The first documented SRO was placed in a school in Flint, Michigan in 1953 as a community policing strategy. They strategized that placing police officers in school would improve the relationship between local police and youth. Flint, Michigan considered the program to be a success, and would become a model for future schools that would adopt the SRO program. Before the first documented SRO, the Los Angeles School Police Department formed their own adaptation of the program in 1948. It was developed to patrol and protect schools while neighborhoods began to desegregate. This is considered to be the first type of policing program in the United States.
After Flint, Michigan, municipalities across the nation implemented SRO programs with the goal of creating stronger community ties between police and the youth and to protect the safety of students. In 1966 The Chicago Police Department set a precedent for the new presence of policing in schools by establishing the first “Officer Friendly” program. Their movement served as an example for several policing programs that would follow including D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education and Training). However, these programs did not launch until the 1980s and 1990s. Fresno, California also created a new standard for school policing in 1968 to promote community relationships between the public and law enforcement.
The 1990s mark a period of substantial change to SRO programs in the United States. This change came about after the school shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 where 15 students were fatally shot by fellow peers, and Jonesboro Middle School in 1998 where four students and one teacher were fatally shot by fellow peers as well. These troubling instances raised concern about school safety leading to the most attention SRO programs had received in country history. Between 1999 and 2005, the federal government awarded more than $750 million dollars to hire nearly 7,000 school resource officers across the country to tackle the new surge of school shootings. Between 1997 and 2007, the number of SROs in schools rose by approximately 6,700.
In more recent years, school shootings like Sandy Hook and the Parkland Massacre have continued to bring attention to the need for more safety in schools. This continued to incentivize the funding of SRO programs. In 2013, President Barack Obama announced a plan to prioritize federal grant application from law enforcement agencies that were looking to hire school resources officers. The rise of school shootings is one of the most obvious reasons for the increasing presence of SROs in schools across the nation, but it is not the only one. In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a rise in juvenile crime that also led to the expansion of the SRO program. In 1994 the Congress passed the Gun-Free Schools Act in fear of the juvenile and gang violence happening across the country. The passage of this act increased SRO presence as well.
Like the United States, many secondary schools in Canada have hired security personnel to enhance the safety of staff and students. Major cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Vancouver and Winnipeg maintain their SRO programs offered by their local city police, alongside small rural towns mainly in the provinces of West Canada with their programs offered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police due to its rural nature. The SRO program in Vancouver is styled as the School Liaison Officer (SLO) Program. The City of Surrey also maintains its own SRO program, however like small rural towns is offered by the RCMP as it is its primary law enforcement agency in the city. This is set to change when the Surrey Police Service is fully implemented in November 2024, replacing the currently existing RCMP detachment in Surrey.
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