School resource officers (SRO) have been involved in the American school system for about 70 years. SRO programs began in the early 1950s beginning within a school district in Flint, Michigan. Since the start of SRO programs, police officers were predominately placed in schools with a high percentage of African American students and in low-income communities. School administration had implemented a program to station law enforcement officers in the school because of crime, drugs, and violence within the school. The community in the Flint School District had a lot of racial discrimination and elevated levels of racial inequality and segregation. As school administrators and community leaders in this era often blamed minority youth for juvenile delinquency and school-related security issues they pushed for law enforcement to combat these problems.
TopIntroduction
School resource officers (SRO) have been involved in the American school system for about 70 years. SRO programs began in the early 1950s within a school district in Flint, Michigan (Weiler & Cray, 2011). Since the start of SRO programs, police officers were predominately placed in schools with a high percentage of African American students and in low-income communities (Connery, 2020). The community in the Flint School District had been facing elevated levels of racial inequality and segregation (Gomez, 2021). As school administrators and community leaders in this era often blamed minority youth for juvenile delinquency and school-related security issues, they pushed for law enforcement to combat these problems (Chávez-García, 2007). The chapter will review the history of SRO programs, the criticism, and how they have developed.
The term SRO and the implementation of official SRO programs became much more common in the 1960s and 1970s and continued to grow into the 21st century. It is challenging to know the exact number of SROs as there is no widely accepted definition for what an SRO is as it changes from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Generally, an SRO is a law enforcement officer trained to work with juveniles in a school setting. Most SROs are assigned to one primary school, have experience as a traditional police officer, volunteer for the SRO position, wear a regular police uniform, and are generally White males.
Historical Background
Federal funding became more prevalent for SRO programs in the 1990s with the Clinton Administration 1994 Crime Bill, and SRO programs started spreading nationwide (Addington, 2009). Another factor for the increase in SRO programs was the various high-profile school shootings, especially the Columbine High School shooting when two 12th-grade students killed 12 other students and a teacher, with many more injured by gunfire. The Columbine school shooting was unique in the number of victims that died (the deadliest school shooting at the time with 15 deaths) and the media attention it was given. Parents and others demanded that school safety become a priority for lawmakers who used police officers to help with this issue (Lee-Collins, 2007).
The start of SRO programs was much different than in the 21st century. A recent account of SROs in the country provided a rough estimate of around 19,000 (Statement of Interest, 2015). In the beginning, many SROs would be working in schools in plain clothes, which is rare today as they are usually in uniform now. A primary purpose of the SRO programs was to help build an improved relationship between the youth and the police, which is also a tenant of community policing philosophy (Trojanowicz & Carter, 1988). Other aspects of community policing philosophy go along with SRO programs, including police-citizen collaborations, increased foot patrols, and education.
The SRO programs made many parents feel that their children were safer at school and gave them peace of mind (Addington, 2009), especially after the fear caused by the countless mass shootings shown on the news that occurred in schools like Sandy Hook Elementary, where a 20-year-old killed 27 people, including 20 first-grade children and six adults, and the Parkland shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida where a 19-year-old had killed 17 people (Elsass et al., 2021). The impact of school shootings has led even the United States Secret Service, responsible for protecting the President of the United States (US) from security threats, for being involved in the creation of better school security (Augustyniak, 2005).