Cops on Campus: The Racial Patterning of Police in Schools

Abstract

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.

The thin blue line in schools: New evidence on school‐based policing across the U.S.

“…Interestingly, our sample of schools shows that on average in schools that have an SRO the proportion of White students is higher, and the proportion of Black and Hispanic students is lower, than in those without one. This finding in student composition contrasts with some earlier findings in the literature (e.g., Theriot, 2009) but mirrors patterns of school policing documented in newer studies (Gleit, 2022). These patterns of student race/ethnicity may in part reflect that SROs are more prevalent in rural and town schools in our data than in urban or suburban schools.…”

“…School districts often view SROs as the first line of defense against school shootings and other acts of serious school violence (Canady et al., 2012; Fisher et al., 2020a; James & Dragoo, 2018; Viano et al., 2021). However, growing public concerns about the role of SROs in the punishment and arrest of students, particularly Black students, for minor misconduct (e.g., Gleit, 2022; Hirschfield, 2008; Homer & Fisher, 2020; Nolan, 2011) have led over 50 districts serving over 1.7 million students to end or cut back their SRO programs since May of 2020 (Riser‐Kositsky et al., 2022).…”

Rise against the machine: Creating global health for vulnerable populations through child nutrition

“…Over time, decreased self-esteem, increased behavior problems, depression, anxiety, and anger in school children can eventually lead school administrators to take disciplinary actions, which may include suspension, expulsion, and even arrest. Arrests and disciplinary actions increase the child's likelihood of dropping out and potentially engaging with more police involvement (Gleit, 2022).…”

Statement on the effects of law enforcement in school settings

“…In particular, there has been a rapid increase in SBLE presence in elementary schools, rising from about 1% to over 30% between 1990 and 2016 (Heaviside et al, 1998; Musu‐Gillette et al, 2018). Gleit (2022) illustrates that the majority of White schools have seen the biggest increase in SBLE, especially at the elementary level, but students' exposure to SBLE differs along racial lines. Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students have more direct exposure to SBLE and experience more punitive discipline in comparison to White students.…”