February 8, 2024 – Hoover, Ala. – The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) warned today that removing school resource officers (SROs) from Chicago Public Schools could significantly decrease school safety.
“If the Board of Education proceeds with reported plans to do so, it will put students at greater risk of injury from violent crime on its campuses,” said NASRO executive director Mo Canady.
“Other school districts around the nation, including some in large, metropolitan areas, have unfortunately experienced negative consequences over the past few years after discontinuing SRO programs and many subsequently returned SROs to their schools,” Canady added.
“Carefully selected, specifically trained and properly equipped school resource officers help prevent violence in schools across the nation without undesired consequences, when communities adhere to appropriate standards and best practices,” Canady continued.
To help communities learn the best way to put police officers in schools, NASRO published “School Resource Officer Program Recommendations,” a document that outlines how school resource officer programs should be run; how officers should be selected, trained and equipped; and how law enforcement agencies and school communities should collaborate.
“If leaders of the Chicago Public School district are dissatisfied with the work of Chicago Police Department SROs, the solution that’s safest for students is to change the SRO program as necessary to implement best practices, not to eliminate the program,” Canady said. “This includes appropriate training not only for SROs, but also for their supervisors and for school administrators, who must understand appropriate and inappropriate ways to use SROs.”
NASRO recommendations include:
- Prohibiting, through written intergovernmental agreement, the use of school resource officers to enforce school rules, assist in classroom management, or any similar task that educators would be expected to handle on their own in the absence of a law enforcement officer.
- Implementation of multidisciplinary school safety teams that lead a comprehensive approach to violence prevention guided by federal recommendations, research, and community policing principles. NASRO offers training to school systems on how to implement such a program.
- Selecting for school resource officer assignments only experienced law enforcement officers who have demonstrated a desire and ability to work well with youth.
- Providing at least 40 hours of specialized training to school resource officers, their supervisors and school administrators, including:
- Appropriate roles.
- Developing positive relationships with diverse students.
- Supporting students with disabilities and behavioral health challenges.
- Digital safety.
- Human trafficking.
- Mental health.
- Substance abuse.
- De-escalation.
- Behavioral threat assessment.
- Emergency operations planning.
- Armed assailant response.
On a weekly basis, news media around the US report on interventions by school resource officers that helped prevent and mitigate potential tragedies. The NASRO website provides a collection of such stories. In addition, Safe and Sound Schools’ “Averted School Violence” database contains many reports of school resource officers preventing on-campus violence, thanks to information gained through positive relationships these officers built with students.
“Well-implemented SRO programs help communities bridge the gap between law enforcement and youth, building positive relationships that can last lifetimes, while helping to protect schools from a wide variety of threats. In addition, they can do so while reducing referrals of students to the juvenile justice system,” Canady said. “NASRO is ready to help Chicago Public Schools experience such benefits through consultation and training.”
“Given the choice between improving an SRO program through the adoption of best practices and eliminating the program, a school board that chooses the latter makes a potentially grave error,” Canady concluded.
About NASRO
The National Association of School Resource Officers is a nonprofit organization for school-based law enforcement officers, school administrators and school security and safety professionals working as partners to protect students, school faculty and staff, and the schools where they learn and work. NASRO provides specific training for SROs at locations around the nation, hosts an annual National School Safety Conference and advocates for best practices to help SRO programs accomplish their goals while avoiding unintended consequences. NASRO is headquartered in Hoover, Alabama, and was established in 1991. For more information, visit www.nasro.org.
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