“What is a School Resource Officer?”
It seems most of the public has the perception that a school
resource officer is merely a police officer working patrol division who was up-rooted one day
and placed in the school environment.
In fact, the ideal police officer to be based in school is a
specially trained, self motivated individual having several years of
police experience and has demonstrated the ability to effectively engage
the public.
The officer should be of outstanding moral character, a good public
speaker and have a wide variety of law enforcement training and
experience.
Certainly the School Resource Officer should enjoy our youth.
A School Resource Officer (SRO) performs the lion’s share of the
necessary law enforcement function on campus.
This function includes proactive crime prevention, conducting
criminal investigations, making arrests when necessary, developing
intervention strategies and crisis planning.
Since the advent of the Safe Schools Act, the SRO is the recipient
of mandated reporting by schools.
* The SRO
works most closely with the building administrator.
* The SRO
assists the classroom teacher by being an authoritative resource on law
enforcement specific, and related, topics.
* The SRO
develops and delivers a variety of lesson plans. These lesson plans
cover generic law enforcement related topics such as “Search and
Seizure”, “Miranda” and “Law Enforcement as a Career.
* Based on
the needs of the environment, the SRO may develop and deliver
specialized lesson plans such as “Date Rape, Sexual Assault and Sexual
Predation by Drug”, “Rights verses Responsibilities of a Citizen”,
“Effects of Alcohol and Commonly Abused Drugs”, “First Aid and CPR” and
others.
Unsurprisingly, the action of building relationships with students,
faculty, staff, administrators and parents is perhaps the single most
important activity engaging the SRO. The quality of trust generated by
relationships any officer develops on the “beat” are directly
proportionate to their success. This is particularly true with the SRO.
Positive relationships yield great results in the solvability of
criminal acts, the prevention of crime, successful drug interventions,
drug interdictions and the ability to effectively address non-criminal
student needs. The SRO has a close relationship with the school
counselor's), social workers) and/or psychologist's).
The
successful SRO works during the normal school day as well as during
co-curricular events. The SRO is instrumental in providing a safe
environment conducive to the learning process.
Students
and faculty have a heightened perception of safety due to the work of
the SRO. The SRO strives to improve the “working” environment for
students, administrators, faculty, custodians, food service workers and
others. The School Resource Officer functions as the “Chief of Police”
of the school, a mentor, a positive role model and a friend.
