School Police: Assigning Police Officers to Schools - Research Paper Example

School police: Assigning Police Officers to Schools Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1 Common Roles for Assigned Police Officers (SRO) 2 What is known about the effectiveness of Police Officers being assigned to schools? 3 Decision on how and whether to assign Police officers to schools 5 Conclusion 9 Reference 10 Introduction Schools for a long time have been provided services by police agencies. However, in the last two decades, assigning of police officers to school has become a full-time based practice. A one-third estimate of all officers and almost half of all police departments assign almost 17,000 dedicated officers to serve within school. In addition, almost half of all the public schools have police officers assigned. These assigned or stationed officers are called school resource officers (SROs) or sometimes education resource officers (EROs). These officers have many roles, which include being safety experts, problem solvers, law enforcers, community resource liaisons, and educators. The assigning of officers in schools is becoming very popular. Local jurisdictions have received support for federal funding to encourage SRO programs. While the police in schools trend grow, it is significant to understand how and when assigning police officers to schools are a good strategy for both schools, as well as police agencies. The summary of this guide is beneficial to various stakeholders who are responsible for school police, safety, school officials, students, teachers, as well as community members. This guide also relates to the duties of the SROs, as it also combines research pertaining effectiveness of the SRO model. Lastly, this discussion is also intended to providing guidance to members of the community as well as other interested parties who seek to work with schools and police in order to improve public safety. Common Roles for Assigned Police Officers (SRO) Officers within schools provide many services. However, their duties range from community to community, of which comprise of three main roles which are providing safety as experts and enforcing the law, problem solving and community resource liaisons and lastly education. As safety experts and law enforcers, the police officers (SROs) play the single role of maintaining order and promoting safety in schools. Beyond the role of serving in crime prevention and response, these police officers engage in being the first responders in events of critical school incidents, such as fires, accidents, explosions as well as other life threatening events. Furthermore, the same police officers provide support for advanced planning for managing crises (Atkinson, 2002, p 14-15). In addition, police officers must get training that is specific towards their role within the school. The training that is provided within the standard police academies is not suitable for an assigned school police officer, reason being that they are not prepared for the role they are likely to face. As problem solvers and community resource liaisons, the police officers within a school setting while solving problems involves coordinating efforts among teachers, administrator, students, health professional, parents, and community based stakeholders. The police officers (SROs) usually help in resolving problems that are not really law violations, for example, bullying or disorderly behavior but are still safety related and if not dealt with immediately can contribute to incidents of crime. When helping to resolve these problems, the officer will usually act as a liaison resource, within both the school and community. As an educator, the police officer serves as a resource for classroom presentation, which complements the educational curriculum by highlighting the essential principles as well as skills needed for citizenship responsibility and by teaching topics that are related to policing. Police officers can present courses for faculty, students, as well as parents. Despite the fact that police officers teach a variety of classes, no research has shown which classes are beneficial or how effective the officer’s teaching role is. Surveys have indicated that most officers’ time is spent engaged in activities of law enforcement. What is known about the effectiveness of Police Officers being assigned to schools? Even with their popularity, studies are few as to the effectiveness of police officers. Addressing this issue is significant because it will help future police officers understand how to maximize as well as improve the effectiveness with limited resources. In the case of school policing, the kind of benefits that the school administrators want, is to have the police officers working in their schools by ensuring safety all over the school, quicker police response times and truancy reductions. Majority of existing police officers research does not indicate whether the hoped for benefits are attainable. However, numerous school administrators as well as parents had expressed satisfaction with the school policing program, even when there was resistance to the idea of assigning police within schools. One of the measurement values of the school policing program was by the satisfaction of parents, school administrators, as well as teachers, given that the federal government has invested in the program by hiring, training as well as maintaining police presence within schools. However, it is vital to carry out assessments and evaluations in order to establish the effectiveness of the program by usage of outcome-focused research. Methods that will enable in reduction of crime as well as disorder and make schools much safer. Concerning changes in crime, as well as violence, evaluation programs are essential in determining program effectiveness as well as receiving continued funding. However, various research studies state that school police programs need to gather more data (Finn & McDevitt, 2005). Furthermore, studies pertaining school policing effectiveness have had mixed results. Some studies have shown improvements in school safety as well as a reduction in crime while others have shown no change. The studies that reported positive results from the program relied on the perception of the participants of the program effectiveness rather than the objective evidence, while other studies failed to isolate the incidents of violence and crime, so it is hard to tell whether the positive results stemmed from school policing presence or were resultant of other factors (Travis & Coon, 2005). Other forms of research have suggested that school policing programs have no significant impact on youth criminality, but the presence of a police officer has enhanced school safety. They have been success stories in the effectiveness of assigning police officers within school especially in Canada and the United Kingdom. Schools have been made safer by incorporating many interventions as well as partners in order to improve student safety, create safer communities, as well as working environments (Hossack et al, 2006). Overall, the school police program has shown positive results within schools as well as students, especially students that have interacted with the assigned police officers. In addition, the program has potential to beneficially increase crime prevention as well as reporting and building relationships within schools and the surrounding neighborhoods. Decision on how and whether to assign Police officers to schools Police can help improve school safety by tackling school problems, which does not have to be a result of an initiation of assigned police officer programs. Through specific efforts of problem solving, school police officers can help reduction in areas of bullying within schools, graffiti, truancy, and theft from lockers. Before any decision is made pertaining assigning police officers within schools, a clear picture must be developed concerning specific safety issues. It is this comprehension that will determine what response is appropriate and what is the best way to focus available resources as well as funds. Being specific and understanding school’s safety needs is vital. Although this differs widely by location, forms of crime as well as violence exist in almost all schools. The kind of violence and crime vary by school types, be they rural or urban, large or small. The school’s safety needs require a safe effective plan. For example, research by the United Kingdom’s partnership on safer schools found that violence in schools in the United States indicated that, in order to have an effective school safety mechanism, a holistic approach is required that involves collaboration as well as partnerships among schools, families, as well as community agencies. Therefore, creating a planning safety team, which would include teachers, administrators, school staff, students, parents, as well as a community member? Some of the factors that relate to safety plans should include school disorders, location inclusive, characteristics of the community, demographics, as well as the social, physical, and academic school environment. Furthermore, school safety plans must have short and long-term responses and school police must be involved in both (Lambert and McGinty, 2002). In spite of school police being an important component in the overall safety plan, they must not be the only component. Similarly, assigned police officers are one of the ways in which police have an impact on school safety. Input decisions by stakeholders are needed to provide what would work best in particular situations. In order to enhance school safety, collection of data is necessary of which is to be used smartly by the planning team of which will strengthen and clarify the team’s observations. The data that are collected should have all aspects of the security environment within the school, stubborn crime as well as disorder issues, environmental and physical considerations, threat issues and disaster planning. They are many ways in which such data is collected which include statistical analysis of school disciplinary data, community crime, violence, surveys, community forums, and interviews. Once the safety needs of the school are understood, developing particular safety goals must be established. These goals must be directly to the school’s needs as well as be specific in addressing the issues at hand. For instance, if the goal is to halt crime within the school. This approach is too broad in developing a meaningful strategy. Instead, if the planning team focuses on a particular type of criminal activity. Feedback is then selective and tailored to handle the particular problem in the particular context. After establishing safety goals, the planning team designs a target safety plan. The strategies must be based on the identified problem and could include the assigned police officers. Should assigned police officers (SRO) be used, their activities will address particular safety concerns. For example, if the officer is to teach a class, the class session should focus on safety issues of the school. Moreover, if a police officer is going to mentor a student, the officer must select students that are involved in the kind of criminal behavior that is being targeted. It is serious that the assigned police officers know the safety requirements of the school and tailor their activities to meet those needs. There are several manners in which there is practical school police cooperation, and the police can play many roles within the school system even without permanently stationing police officers. These include: Partnership problem solving which involves pairing police officers with school personnel Crime situation prevention, which include usage of physical barricades, security technology as well as access control Youth sponsorship activities and in school presentations and trainings Technical partnership assistance that focus on safety planning, threat assessment, crisis response, and safety and security audits. Holistic participation efforts to reduce risk factors associated with crime and violence or increase protection factors that are at individual, school, peer, family, as well as community level. In addition, school police can address various concerns that are within the standard police roles, which include treats or actual usage of weapons, hooliganism, physical violence, identification of illegal materials, and criminal behavior that takes place within and outside of school grounds. Although there are many ways, police can engage with schools, planning teams for school police might assign a police officer to a due because of lack of research available when it comes to assigned police officer programs. It is impossible to provide accurate recommendation for the implementation of an effective program. Instead, data concerning partnership as well as processes that have worked are the ones that are suggested. Before making an agreement in order to establish an assigned police officer program, police departments, and schools must consider the potential challenges. Some of these challenges can be either operational or philosophical in nature. Operational challenges include lack of resources for the assigned police officers such as lack of proper training or time constraints (Atkinson, 2002, p 19). In addition, reassignment as well as police turnover is also a challenge. These challenges can easily be addresses with proper framework in place. However, this requires lots of discussions, negotiations, and commitment in order to achieve success. While philosophical challenges usually relate to conflicting organizational cultures of police departments and schools. For example, the police will focus on safety while the schools will focus on education. These different perspectives can be very challenging for an assigned police officer. Therefore, school police officers must play double roles, crossing between school, as well as police cultures (McKay, Covell and McNeil, 2006 p.14). Establishing protocol is a critical part of having effective partnership. It is essential to clearly state what various roles agencies will play. This will help establish clear guidelines for all parties. Concerning legal issues, school police cooperation, in a particular school police officers raise some legal concerns that ought to be worked out before implementing collaborations. The issues that arise are usually out of conflicts between standard roles of police and educators. For example, a case whereby school administrators and teachers are legally obliged to act in students’ interest can bring conflict with police obligations that represent the legal state norm enforcement. However, school safety is the ultimate goal for both school and police. In addition, the main mission for school systems is education while that of police is safety. These two missions at times are difficult to reconcile. Conclusion Over the recent years, assigned police officers (SROs) have been perceived to respond to school safety requirements. Millions of dollars are spent in hiring, training, and implementation of assigned police officer (SRO) programs. However, evaluations of the program’s effectiveness have been limited. Some SRO programs that were conducted lacked clear safety goals and others SRO program activities lacked the desired outcomes. Regarding limited resources, communities must seek the best ways to allocate police personnel. When deciding to station police within schools police activity, they should be clearly defined goals that are strategic as well as intentional. Based on research from the effectiveness of SRO programs, the following recommendation are for the communities: Have an analytical approach towards safety problems in order to clearly understand the needs and objectives, which should include assessment of safety needs, identifying goals and designing programs to meet needs and goals. Frequently assess programs to ensure that desired goals are being met. Be creativity, police school cooperation has many forms. Be flexible. A strategy that worked in a particular situation might not work in another situation over time. Thus, communities ought to be open to the various possibilities that exist about addressing needs for school safety. While police departments nationwide are facing significant shortage in staffing and frequently need to assess their most effective deployment resources. There is a possibility that police departments could become understaffed hence the need to reassign school resource officers. Concerning partnerships, those that have complete safety plans will be able to identify the strengths as well as weakness of their programs and if need be provide choices to address their specific safety issues. Reference Atkinson, A. (2002). Fostering School-Law Enforcement Partnerships. Safe and Secure: Guides to Creating Safer Schools, Guide 5. Portland, O.R.: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Lambert, R., and D. McGinty (2002). "Law Enforcement Officers in Schools: Setting Priorities." Journal of Educational Administration 40(3): 257-273. Travis, L., and J. Coon (2005). Role of Law Enforcement in Public School Safety: A National Survey. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. Finn, P., and J. McDevitt (2005). National Assessment of School Resource Officer Programs. Final Project Report. Cambridge, M.A.: Abt Associates. McKay, M., K. Covell, and J. McNeil (2006). An Evaluation of Cape Breton Regional Police Service's Community Liaison Officer Program in Cape Breton-Victoria Region Schools. Sydney, Nova Scotia: Children's Rights Centre, Cape Breton University. Read More