Facts about the School Resource Officer program

According to a survey conducted by The Center for the Prevention of School Violence, there are currently 623 School Resource Officers working in schools across North Carolina this year.

The Center's annual census of SRO's in North Carolina employs a definition for "School Resource Officer" that was developed through research of law enforcement presence in schools. The definition is of critical importance since it distinguishes those law enforcement officers who may be only visiting schools occasionally from those who are permanently assigned to schools. Specifically, the Center's definition for an SRO is:

a certified law enforcement officer who is permanently assigned to provide coverage to a school or a set of schools. The SRO is specifically trained to perform three roles: law enforcement officer; law-related counselor; and law-related teacher. The SRO is not necessarily a DARE officer, security guard, or officer who has been placed in temporarily in a school in response to a crisis situation but rather acts as a comprehensive resource for his/her school.

The definition emphasizes the permanent assignment and specialized training that characterize a programmatic approach to placing law enforcement officers in schools.

Some interesting facts/statistics about School Resource Officers:

• The mean age of an SRO in North Carolina is 36.5 years old
• The mean number of years of experience in law enforcement is 9.7 years
• The mean number of years of experience in schools is 2.7 years
• The mean for the number of hours a week SRO's said they work is 47
• SRO's perform three roles in the school: law enforcement officer (47% of their time), law-related counselor (35% of their time), and law-related educator (18% of their time)
• The mean number of counseling sessions held by an SRO in a week is 9.13
• The mean number of lectures presented by an SRO in a week is 2.44

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

Return to Home Page