SRO Appreciation Day - Pfc. James Beck

Tell us a little about your role as an SRO. As an SRO, I serve many different schools including Fort Hill High School, with approximately 670 students, Washington Middle School with approximately 570 students, John Humbird Elementary School with 247 students, and South Penn Elementary with 513 students.

All of our schools have unique features to the types of classes and some are schools with special needs classes where students get one-on-one attention. Along with being a school resource officer, I also assist the shift when needed and work on one of our specialized teams.

Part of my duties as a SRO is to prepare a Mock Crash that is put on at all three area high schools before prom. Hopefully, this will help them with making better decisions while they are driving. I also work on the Kid's Camp that we put on in the summertime. I am in the process of working with outside agencies to hopefully build a facility dog program at our department, as this has been proven to help students and has been a great asset at many other schools and locations. I am also a DARE instructor at all of my schools.

What was your inspiration behind becoming a school resource officer? I wanted to work with the juveniles in the area. With helping to coach different sports, I was already working with the kids, but I thought that if I could also be with them in school, I might help them and keep them on the right path to greatness.

What’s the most important part of your job? The most important part of my job, besides ensuring the safety of all staff and students, is to interact with students and try to help those that need help to ensure that they have what they need to keep pushing forward and achieving their goals.

What’s something you wish other people knew about your job? That I am here to help the students. SROs are not here to charge everyone and anyone. We are here to talk to students and hopefully help steer them in the right direction to keep them out of trouble. We need to come up with ways to teach them about life outside of school and keep them on the straight and narrow -- hopefully keeping them out of the gang and drug life.