‘Bridging the gap’: school resource officers as bridge builders in the community policing era

Higgins, Ethan M.; Overstreet, Suzanne; Coffey, Brandon S; Fisher, Benjamin W.

doi:10.1080/0735648x.2019.1704837

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In examining the outcomes of school-based policing, the effects on students are of key concern. Some of the literature noting positive effects of school resource officers (SROs) presence draws on interview data with school-based officers (Higgins et al 2020; McKenna et al 2016). Although this work is important in revealing how officers perceive the impact of their work, “SRO perceptions of their effectiveness may be positively skewed as a self-evaluation of their job performance” (Pentek and Eisenberg 2018:146).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cops on Campus: The Racial Patterning of Police in Schools

Gleit

2022

Socius

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This article describes how the use of sworn law enforcement in American schools is patterned by school racial composition. Three distinct measures are constructed using data from the Civil Rights Data Collection and the School Survey on Crime and Safety: police prevalence, the degree of exposure that students have to police officers within their schools, and the roles of officers within those schools. Results show that police have become increasingly prevalent in schools with the largest shares of white students, especially at the elementary level. Yet youth in schools with the most Black, Latinx, and Native American students experience the highest exposure to police, and police in these schools are more frequently directed to carry out punitive tasks such as discipline. Student exposure to police is also relatively common in the whitest schools, but officers in these settings are more often used for tasks unrelated to punishment, such as teaching.

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confidence: 99%

Cops on Campus: The Racial Patterning of Police in Schools

Gleit

2022

Socius

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“…Recent research has demonstrated that the triad model of school policing may not fully capture the roles and work activities of police officers in schools (Higgins et al, 2020; McKenna et al, 2016). Our findings reveal that CP may provide a useful conceptual framework for understanding these phenomena.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Alignment Between Community Policing and the Work of School Resource Officers

et al. 2022

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Despite a growing literature showing the ineffectiveness of school resource officers (SROs) for reducing school crime, their use is widespread. Some of this ineffectiveness may arise from SROs’ experiences of role conflict due to their multi-faceted roles and conflicting expectations associated with following two authority structures. Community policing (CP) may offer a unifying perspective that can address some of these barriers. The current study uses data from 119 qualitative interviews with SROs from three U.S. states to examine the extent to which SROs’ activities align with three dimensions of CP: community partnerships, problem-solving, and organizational adaptation. This study finds that SROs’ described activities align well with these dimensions, suggesting that a CP framework may be a strong model for organizing and describing the work of SROs. This framework can be viewed as an initial proof of concept, and research may elaborate on the framework and assess its utility.

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“…Prior research has documented how SROs actively try to be a visible deterrent—including through mechanisms like parking their vehicles prominently in front of schools or maintaining a regular presence in the school’s front office (Curran et al, 2020; Viano et al, 2021). From a community policing perspective, SROs are meant to be a “resource” to school communities by building relationships with students and other school stakeholders (Higgins et al, 2020). Indeed, the NASRO triad model emphasizes these types of roles for SROs (Canady et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These accounts of a lack of government transparency by schools about SROs are somewhat ironic given that SROs are often implemented in a public manner and through a community policing lens (Higgins et al, 2020). From a safety standpoint, many SROs maintain a visual presence at schools to act as a deterrent to violence, parking patrol cars prominently in front of buildings and maintaining a presence at school entrances (Curran et al, 2020; Viano et al, 2021).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…From a safety standpoint, many SROs maintain a visual presence at schools to act as a deterrent to violence, parking patrol cars prominently in front of buildings and maintaining a presence at school entrances (Curran et al, 2020; Viano et al, 2021). From a community policing perspective, SROs’ jobs come with expectations to interact with various school stakeholders and build relationships of trust with students (Higgins et al, 2020). Community policing was created to bring citizens and the police force together, to improve the social ties between them, and help improve the environment residents find themselves in (Brunson & Pegram, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Community Policing in Schools and School Resource Officer Transparency

Curran

Boza

2022

Educational Policy

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Following increased attention to racial disparities in police use of force, national conversations have focused on the role of law enforcement, including in public schools. This study examines transparency with regard to the presence of law enforcement in schools. Leveraging novel school-level and district-level data from the state of Florida, this research shows that the majority of schools and about a third of school districts do not make information on law enforcement presence in schools publicly available. Furthermore, the study finds that schools and districts serving more White student bodies have higher levels of transparency around law enforcement than those serving less-White demographics, an important finding given the racialized context of current policy discussions around policing in US schools and society more broadly. These findings inform ongoing debates about law enforcement in schools while also raising implications for policy and practice around the racialized nature of government transparency.

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‘Bridging the gap’: school resource officers as bridge builders in the community policing era

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

Cops on Campus: The Racial Patterning of Police in Schools

Cops on Campus: The Racial Patterning of Police in Schools

The Alignment Between Community Policing and the Work of School Resource Officers

Community Policing in Schools and School Resource Officer Transparency

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