Is Deploying School Resource Officers ‘Over-Policing’ Urban Schools?
SROs are often mentioned when the discussion revolves around active shooters on campus, but that discussion should be about more than just shooters and should include the entire community, some experts say.
The school shootings from the last few years have prompted action by school districts to do something that might curb or mitigate a potential mass shooting, and one of the “tools in the toolbox,” is school resource officers (SROs).
Many districts have responded by partnering with local law enforcement and use retired or designated law enforcement personnel to patrol campuses as SROs. They try to earn the trust of students and can offer a place where students can discuss anonymously situations that could lead to violence.
The hope is that trust and the ability of the SROs to gather data could head off a potential disaster.
But not everyone believes there should be police in schools. The Sacramento City Unified School District in California recently approved a new schools safety plan that removes five of the eight officers who patrol city campuses. “One of the challenges is that urban areas where there are predominantly black and Latino students, we are overly policed, which creates a pipeline to prison,” Carl Pinkston of the Black Parallel School Board told a local television station.
Former middle school teacher and current associate professor at Howard University Kenneth Anderson conducted a study in North Carolina between 2013 and 2017. It looked at elementary and middle school students and the presence of SROs corresponding to 16 crime-related offenses, and concluded there was no improvement with SRO presence. The study was publicized by the Brookings Institution.
Also, in North Carolina, a group called the Education Justice Alliance has CONTINUE READING: Is Deploying School Resource Officers ‘Over-Policing’ Urban Schools?
