Abstract
School resource officers (SROs) have become increasingly prevalent in U.S. public schools, yet critics suggest that there is an inherent incompatibility between the cultures of police and education. However, research has not examined the extent to which some of the potentially incompatible elements of police culture exist among SROs. This study examines three elements of traditional police culture that are likely to be particularly incompatible with school settingsâ suspicion, danger anticipation, and unpredictability. Given SROsâ involvement in roles such as teaching and informal counseling that extend beyond the typical duties of police officers, it is unclear whether these elements of police culture extend to SROs and influence their work. The current mixed methods study examines these dynamics using data from 31 surveys, 50 time logs, and 47 in-depth interviews with SROs from two suburban school districts. Findings indicated that SROs did embody characteristics typical of traditional police culture and that these characteristics shaped their daily activities and interactions with students, particularly regarding maintaining security and building relationships. Implications for theory, research, and policy are offered.
Highlights
School resource officers (SROs) have become increasingly common in U.S schools as a mechanism for increasing school safety
Police culture is a broad concept that encompasses a variety of aspects of individual and organizational approaches to policing, this study focuses on three elements of traditional police culture that may be a poor fit in school contexts because of the potential for criminalizing students: suspicion, danger anticipation, and unpredictability
We describe several categories of SROs’ roles—derived both from the study’s data and the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) triad model—and the extent to which those roles were motivated by suspicion, danger anticipation, and situational uncertainty
Summary
School resource officers (SROs) have become increasingly common in U.S schools as a mechanism for increasing school safety. SROs are distinct from other forms of security and law enforcement in that they are sworn officers with arrest powers that are assigned to a particular school or set of schools. They typically engage in various activities beyond law enforcement, often including functions as educators and informal counselors (Canady, James, & Nease, 2012). SROs are expected to keep schools safe and become integrated into school communities, build relationships with students and adults in the school, and otherwise provide added benefits beyond their roles as law enforcement officers
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