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Campus Law Enforcement Officer Role in Discipline, Enforcement, Community Education, and Mentoring

Campus Law Enforcement Officer Role in Discipline, Enforcement, Community Education, and Mentoring. Instructor. Terminal Objective.

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Campus Law Enforcement Officer Role in Discipline, Enforcement, Community Education, and Mentoring

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  1. Campus Law Enforcement Officer Role in Discipline, Enforcement, Community Education, and Mentoring Instructor

  2. Terminal Objective Upon completion of this module, the participant will be able to describe an Campus Law Enforcement Officer’s various roles in discipline, enforcement, community education, and mentoring according to the NASRO/TASRO Triad approach.

  3. Enabling Objectives • Present a brief history of the SRO Program • Identify the TRIAD Concept (NASRO 1991) • Describe the TASRO TRIAD approach, its definition, and goals • Describe and discuss the three different roles of an SRO • Describe the SROs role in school discipline • Explain the importance of an SRO Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

  4. Background • A national study of 322 law enforcement agencies found that many SROs engage in activities for which they have not been trained, especially teaching and mentoring. • The 2002 NASRO School Resource Officer Survey also found that “between 17% and 34% have not received specialized training in topics such as adolescent child behavior, counseling skills, . . . and related issues.”

  5. TRIAD Concept (NASRO 1991) • Educator • Counselor • Law Enforcement Officer

  6. TRIAD Approach - TASRO Law Enforcement Officer Law Related Presenter InformalCounselor

  7. SRO Defined (TASRO) • Definition • The SRO concept is the placement of an experienced law enforcement professional in the High Schools, Middle Schools and Elementary Schools with the following goals.

  8. SRO Goals - TASRO • Creating and maintaining safe, secure and orderly learning environments for students, teachers and staff. • Establish a trusting channel of communication with the students, parents, and teachers. • Serve as a positive role model to instill in student's good moral standards, good judgment and discretion, respect for other students, and a sincere concern for the school community.

  9. SRO Goals –TASRO (cont.) • Promote citizen awareness of the law to enable students to become better informed and effective citizens, while empowering students with the knowledge of law enforcement efforts and obligations regarding enforcement as well as consequences for violations of the law. • Serve as a confidential source of counseling for students and parents concerning problems they face as well as providing information on community resources available to them.

  10. SRO Roles • Law Enforcement Officer • The primary purpose is to "keep the peace" • Informal Counselor • Provides resource guidance to students, parents, teachers, staff, and act as a link to support services both inside and outside the school • Law Related Presenter • Shares special law enforcement expertise by presentations in the classroom to promote a better understanding of our laws

  11. Furthermore, the SRO also serves as a positive role model for the students on campus during school hours and off campus at extracurricular activities

  12. Training SROs Training falls into two categories: • Pre-service • In-service

  13. Training SROs • Both are essential for a number of reasons. • Few SROs have experience teaching in the classroom or practicing counseling and mentoring youth • SROs need training in child psychology and behavior

  14. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Role • First and foremost, law enforcement officer • Uniformed or plainclothes armed officer • Marked vehicle • The officer for the school community • Works with other law enforcement officers and agencies • Liaison between the school and police community

  15. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Role Programs can help ensure their survival if SROs go out of their way to make themselves useful to school administrators and teachers.

  16. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Role • Most familiarity between SROs and students is harmless, such as students using informal names to refer to the officers • However, in a few sites SROs and some students hug each other, opening the possibility for students to misconstrue the officers’ intentions. • Programs have taken several steps to help SROs balance being supportive yet remain an authority figure. • Establish specific guidelines for appropriate and inappropriate behavior. • Arrange to provide formal training for SROs on the topic. • Instruct SROs to act defensively

  17. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Role Confusion of SRO Role • School Administrators did not understand or accept the SRO’s role in their schools. • The most common expression of this resistance was a refusal or delay in the reporting of incidents. • SRO seen as enforcer only

  18. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Role • There are also numerous gray areas that administrators and SROs need to iron out • Example: Is shoving between two students to be treated by the SRO as a criminal matter (Assault) or by the assistant principal as a violation of the school discipline code? • Programs vary considerably in the latitude they allow SROs to enforce discipline.

  19. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Role • Even with a written list of roles and responsibilities, there can be problems because no one can anticipate every possible area of disagreement • Some activities are gray areas that could legitimately be more than one person’s responsibility. • SROs may also feel that they need to step in because victims of bullying sometimes end up taking revenge on the students who taunt them—or on innocent parties in the school

  20. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Role • Teachers need to be trained on the role of the SRO • The benefits of teacher training can be immediate and significant • In addition to needing training in classroom management, SROs also need to learn how to develop lesson plans.

  21. Informal Counselor • Serve as reality counselors (students share problem with officers) • Not a replacement for guidance counselors • Some jurisdictions prefer the term "advisor" • Informal counseling of students and parents based on the expertise of a law enforcement officer • Work closely with the school’s counseling staff • Provide information on community services and the law to students, parents, and staff

  22. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Counseling • Because SROs are trained to be problem solvers, they naturally fall into the practice of giving advice. • SRO’s and school administrators agree that many students often lie less to SROs

  23. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Counseling • There is a serious risk of giving poor advice in the counseling role, • Some administrators and guidance counselors expressed concern about SROs getting involved in students’ personal problems. • However, the vast majority said they trusted the SROs’ judgment to not overstep their bounds.

  24. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Mentoring • Few people are "natural born" mentors • Without training, few officers realizein advance the central role mentoring plays in being an SRO until later.

  25. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Mentoring • Some School Administrators Help SROs Maintain their Mentoring Role by the use of a variation of the “good cop, bad cop” routine • Some administrators go even further in helping to shield the SROs from having to be too tough on students. • This “division of labor” helps SROs maintain their positive rapport with students that they feel is necessary in order for the officers to remain effective mentors.

  26. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Mentoring • In smaller communities, SROs who go back to being beat officers during the summer can keep in touch with some of their troublesome students and continue to mentor them.

  27. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Enforcement • SROs and school administrators recognize the difficulty SROs experience in trying to maintain authority as enforcers of the law along with maintaining a helping relationship with students as teachers and mentors. • SROs need to be “friendly” but not “friends.” • SROs have reported feeling genuinely “conflicted” when taking punitive action against students.

  28. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Enforcement • There are complex issues associated with enforcing the law in a school that many SROs are not initially ready to handle • SROs may need help to “unlearn” some of the techniques they learned to use on patrol duty that are not appropriate in dealing with students • SROs need guidance in how to collaborate with local principals and assistant principals from whom they will receive day-to-day instructions, requests, and complaints. • SROs need to learn how to work effectively with parents.

  29. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Enforcement • Conflicts arise between SROs and school administrators wanted to use SROs primarily for security purposes • SRO’s are then not allowed or encouragedto act as teachers and mentors

  30. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Enforcement • The challenge of balancing the law enforcement role with the mentor role is exacerbated by the lack of contact many SROs have with other SROs and with patrol officers.

  31. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Enforcement • Historically, police have always had to balance how much discretion to exercise in any given encounter with the public, but officers usually look to peers for advise, help and assistance • But, because SROs are largely isolated from their peers, they are left on their own when it comes to determining how to use their discretion.

  32. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Enforcement • In developing the written description of SRO roles and responsibilities, keep in mind: • Narrow the considerable leeway in what it means for SROs to engage in “law enforcement.” • Make clear whether and how SROs will also be responsible for enforcing discipline. • Be specific about the SROs’ teaching and mentoring responsibilities. • Specify which responsibilities apply to all SROs in all schools (e.g., patrolling the cafeteria at lunch) and which responsibilities are negotiable between individual SROs and their local school administrators (e.g., standing in the corridors between classes).

  33. SRO and Discipline • Officers are in schools to be "proactive" and to compliment the school environment • School discipline and school policy should continue just as it always has • Students have the opportunity to see law enforcement from a different perspective

  34. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Discipline • Disciplining high school students has become increasingly difficult. • School administrators hire assistant principals and deans of students to address daily discipline needs. • According to one poll of the public's attitudes toward public schools, violence, gangs, and a lack of discipline are schools' biggest problems.

  35. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Discipline • Research on school discipline, classroom management, and behavior management collectively suggest that explicit instruction on school rules, as well as ongoing communication about how the school enforces its rules, can reduce problem behavior at school.

  36. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Discipline • School discipline involves dealing with students who break school rules as opposed to handling students who violate state statutes and local ordinances • This can be a source of friction between SROs and school administrators in many schools. • How the SRO handles discipline can also hamper establishing rapport with students and teachers.

  37. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Discipline • Some SROs in some schools consistently enforce discipline—or enforce it on a case-by-case basis on their own initiative or at an administrator’s request. • An SRO in a large school learned what to do by trial and error—“playing it by ear,” as he put it. • The SRO can write discipline reports on students and turn them into the assistant principal

  38. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Discipline • Finally, there is a separate but related issue not of whether SROs do discipline or of how often they do discipline but whether they want to handle punitively through the criminal justice system school rule violations that are also minor offenses. • In particular, an individual SRO’s previous orientation as a law enforcement officer may impel the officer to handle minor infractions either informally or by referral to school administrators, or by making arrests and handing out citations.

  39. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Discipline • Like their other roles, the SROs’ role in enforcing discipline can change over time. • The presence of a SRO can free teachers who are concerned about serious discipline problems from worrying about and taking the time to handle students who might become aggressive

  40. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Discipline • SROs should be involved with both in-school and out-of-school suspension • they should work with school administrators to create alternatives to out-of-school suspensions • Students are less likely to get in trouble if they understand and appreciate the consequences of their behavior beforehand.

  41. Law-Related Presenter • Educate students and faculty regarding law related topics • A member of the faculty and administration • Role of a guest speaker

  42. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Education • Teachers and SROs can teach collaborative lessons on topics from the Bill of Rights to the importance of physical fitness • Together, they can coach athletic teams and head school clubs as well.

  43. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Education • SRO’s have helped devise crisis plans to implement during various types of emergency situations • SRO’s have proven immensely helpful and resourceful during emergencies

  44. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Education • Implementing crime prevention techniques and programs in the SRO program is valuable • Conducting school safety surveys and giving crime prevention presentations on drugs, alcohol and distracted driving are valuable

  45. Campus Law Enforcement Officer: Education Working with Parents • Vocal parents can damage a program • Conversely, strong support from parents can provide important benefits.

  46. SARA model • SRO’s should be part of a collaborative problem solving • The use of the SARA model (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment) is helpful • However, SROs rarely involved other individuals and groups outside the schools in implementing a permanent solution to get at root cause of chronic problems such as bullying or vandalism.

  47. Sources • Bond, B. (2001). Principals and SROs: Defining roles. Principal Leadership, 1(8), 52-55. • Devine, J. (1996). Maximum security: The culture of violence in inner city schools. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. • Kennedy, M. (2001). Security: Teachers with a badge. American School & University, 73(6), 36-38. • Mulqueen, C. (1999). School resource officers: More than security guards. American School & University, 71(11), ss17. • www.nasro.org • National Association of School Resource Officers. (2006). Basic school resource officer course manual. 6th edition, 1. • www.tasro.org • Price, P. (2009). When is a police officer an officer of the law?: The status of police officers in schools. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 99, 2, 541. • The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, H.R.3711, 110th Cong. (2005) • "National School Safety and Security Services." School Resource Officers: 2004 National SRO Survey Results. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://www.schoolsecurity.org/resources/school-resource-officers.html>.

  48. Sources • Benigni, Mark D. "The Need for School Resource Officers." CBS Interactive. CBS Interactive Business Network, 01 May 2004. Web. 03 May 2012. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2194/is_5_73/ai_n7068944/ . • Finn, Peter, and Et Al. "A Guide to Developing,Maintaining, and Succeeding With Your School ResourceOfficerProgram."Http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/ric/Publications/sroguidelines.pdf. U.S. Department of Justice. Web. <http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/ric/Publications/sroguidelines.pdf> • Finn, Peter, and Et Al. "Comparison of Program Activities and Lessons Learned among 19 School Resource Officer (SRO) Programs." U.S. Department of Justice, Mar. 2005. Web. http://www.ncdjjdp.org/cpsv/pdf_files/SRO_Natl_Survey.pdf

  49. Picture Sources • http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-2186-what_i_learned_in_police_firearms_training_class.html • http://www.opkansas.org/Resident-Resources/School-Resource-Officers • http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/archives/50039/

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