U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

March 2001 #05

responsibilities, and provision of appropriate and adequate training for SRO’s remain to be addressed.

Federal Response

On September 6, 2000, the Department of Justice announced that

the COPS in Schools program of its Office of Community

Oriented Policing Services (COPS) would award $68 million in

grants to hire 599 SRO’s in 289 communities across the Nation.

These grants will enable communities to hire new police officers

and encourage working relationships between police and schools,

thus bringing the principles and philosophy of community policing directly into the school environment. 

Although these community grants provide the funding needed to

hire new SRO’s, the SRO’s multifaceted role—as law enforcement officer, counselor, teacher, and liaison between law enforcement, schools, families, and the community—requires training

beyond that traditionally offered in police academies. The SRO’s

focus on youth in schools means these officers work with a complex population in an environment unfamiliar to most law enforcement officers. To help communities prepare SRO’s for their

unique role, Congress appropriated $5 million in fiscal year (FY)

2000 and an additional $3 million in FY 2001 for the COPS program to provide training and technical assistance.

Training and Technical Assistance

With COPS funding, Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) of

Appleton, WI, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited

Children (NCMEC) in Alexandria, VA, in conjunction with the

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, are collaborating to implement a Comprehensive School Safety Leadership

Initiative. This initiative includes a three-part training program

and a technical assistance and support component. FVTC and

NCMEC have defined the mission of the initiative as providing a

“comprehensive interagency strategy designed to assist communities in focusing leadership and resources on the issues related to

creating and maintaining a safe school environment.”

School Resource Officer

Training Program

by Cathy Girouard

In the aftermath of school violence outbreaks in recent years, the

safety of children at school remains an important national issue.

According to Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2000 (published by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice), students ages 12 through 18 were victims of more than 2.7 million

crimes committed at schools in 1998. Although research continues to show that schools are relatively safe places for children

(students were twice as likely to be victims of serious violent

crime away from school than at school in 1998), the subject of

school safety continues to concern families, school administrators, and communities. The perception of imminent danger in the

school environment has become commonplace in many communities, leaving parents, students, and school personnel with, at

best, a tenuous sense of security. The school resource officer

(SRO) concept offers an approach to improving school security

and alleviating community fears.

School Resource Officers

Part Q of Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe

Streets Act of 1968, as amended, defines the SRO as “a career

law enforcement officer, with sworn authority, deployed in

community-oriented policing, and assigned by the employing

police department or agency to work in collaboration with school

and community-based organizations.” According to the Center

for the Prevention of School Violence at North Carolina State

University, the SRO concept evolved during the 1950’s in Flint,

MI, where community policing had been implemented and police

officers had become involved in schools. The concept flourished

during the 1960’s and 1970’s (predominantly in Florida), then

languished in the 1980’s, and did not gain momentum nationwide until the mid-1990’s. 

Today, the concept of what constitutes an SRO varies from one

State or local jurisdiction to another, making counting of the

number of SRO’s difficult. Although the number of identified

SRO’s has continued to grow, key issues related to SRO program

funding, definition and standardization of SRO roles and
PRESORTED STANDARD

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

DOJ/OJJDP

PERMIT NO. G–91

FS–200105 Fact Sheet

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Washington, DC 20531

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

The Comprehensive School Safety Leadership Initiative provides

targeted training designed to reach a wide audience, including

school and law enforcement executives, SRO’s, other police and

school personnel, social services representatives, and community

leaders. The initiative’s training program will enable schools,

communities, and juvenile justice agencies to provide leadership

in implementing and sustaining an effective SRO program. It will

also help communities build organizational capacity and competency and create sound policies and procedures.

The Comprehensive School Safety Leadership Initiative provides

a model of cooperative leadership, illustrating how roles and

responsibilities can be shared across agency lines. The three primary components are:

◆ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Safe Schools Forum. This

2-day training course presents an overview of the Comprehensive School Safety Leadership Initiative, introduces a model

framework that defines critical roles and responsibilities for

community SRO programs, and discusses information-sharing

and policy issues related to school safety and juvenile justice.

Attendees include school superintendents, police chiefs, chief

probation officers, social services administrators, and chief

prosecutors.

◆ School Resource Officer Leadership Program. This

week-long course demonstrates standards of excellence and

best practices for the enhanced role of SRO’s as leaders in

planning and maintaining a safe school environment. Because

what constitutes an SRO is locally defined, attendees include

police officers designated as SRO’s, SRO supervisors, school

district police officers, university police, and school counselors, psychologists, and other school staff.

◆ Safe Schools Interagency Team Planning Program. This

program (not yet piloted but available to jurisdictions that participated in the CEO Safe Schools Forum) brings together

chief executives of schools, communities, social services agencies, and juvenile justice organizations to learn about a process

and method of information sharing, cooperation, and coordination that can lead to improved school safety, better supervision

of students, and more effective crime prevention. Attendees

include school/school district superintendents, SRO supervisors, social services directors, school district and community

police chiefs, local government executives, and other community leaders.

A technical assistance component, designed to sustain and support SRO program development, is available to eligible teams and

course participants who have completed training and have begun

to implement SRO programs.

For Further Information

For further information about the Comprehensive School Safety

Leadership Initiative, please contact:

Fox Valley Technical College

1825 North Bluemound Drive

P.O. Box 2277

Appleton, WI 54912–2277

800–648–4966

Internet: www.foxvalley.tec.wi.us

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Charles B. Wang International Children’s Building

699 Prince Street

Alexandria, VA 22314–3175 

800–843–5678

Internet: www.missingkids.com

Cathy Girouard is a Program Manager in OJJDP’s Child Protection

Division.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component 

of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice

Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice,

and the Office for Victims of Crime.

FS–200105