Police in Schools

An Evidence-based Look at the Use of School Resource Officers

Linda Duxbury, Craig Bennell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429534133
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

This co-authored book critically reviews existing literature on school resource officer (SRO) programs and presents a thorough evaluation of an SRO program offered by Peel Regional Police in Ontario, Canada. The implementation of a SRO program is a controversial response to school violence and safety issues. While some call for an increased use of police in schools, others are pushing to remove police from schools, or at least to end their involvement in routine discipline. Though many SRO programs exist around the world, little systematic research has been conducted on the topic.

The study reported in this book represents the largest and most comprehensive assessment of such programs to date. The research by Duxbury and Bennell indicates that SRO programs can provide real value for students, school staff, policing organizations, and society, but benefits rely on having programs that are well-designed, that the right officers are selected for SRO roles, and that the initiative has support from major stakeholders. Given the current conversations regarding the costs and benefits of having police officers in schools, there is a clear need to determine the value that investment in these types of proactive policing programs creates.

The book provides researchers, SROs, police agencies, school boards, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students with information about: the activities that SROs are involved in, how SROs can collaborate with schools to create safe learning environments, and whether (and how) such programs benefit the police, schools, students, and society. Easy-to-digest charts facilitate understanding, and anonymized reflections from SROs, school staff, and students are presented throughout the book to provide context.

1

INTRODUCTION

In an era where the costs of policing are constantly under scrutiny from the governing municipalities, the time has come for policing organizations to re-evaluate the services they provide. To do this, these organizations need to answer questions relating to the value these services create in the communities they serve. In other words, they need to change the focus of the conversation from “what does this service cost” to “what value does this service provide.”

This book summarizes key findings from a longitudinal (from 2014 to 2017) multi-method (quantitative, qualitative, and ethnographic data) case study undertaken to identify the value of school resource officers (SROs) that are employed by Peel Regional Police. Of particular note is the application of Social Return on Investment (SROI) techniques in this evaluation process. SROI, a methodology that emerged from the not-for-profit sector, helps researchers identify sources of value outside of those considered through traditional valuation techniques, such as cost–benefit analysis.

We began our study by undertaking a review of the existing academic literature in this area. This review showed that most research on SRO programs is limited to descriptions of SRO officers and the activities they perform (e.g., what they do on a daily basis, typical traits of SRO officers, perceptions of such programs). While we did identify a few evaluations of the effectiveness of SROs (see Chapter 2), none of these assessments looked at, or quantified, the value SROs provide to students and/or communities. Research on this topic in Canada was particularly difficult to locate.

The research team also discovered that, although SROI techniques have been widely used by organizations in the not-for-profit sector to quantify social value creation, there is no evidence of this technique being used by police services in Canada (or elsewhere) to assign value to any of the roles they play, including the assignment of police officers to schools. In other words, while the costs associated with SRO programs are high and very visible, the value of such programs has not been reasonably demonstrated. Given the current conversations regarding the costs of policing and whether or not there is merit in having police officers in schools, there is a clear need to demonstrate the value (if any) created by investment in these types of policing programs. Such was the goal of our program of research.

Research Objectives

There appears to be a real need for research examining the value offered by SRO programs. The communities that have “protected” the SRO role spend considerable resources on such services and need to know and be able to communicate to their key stakeholders: (1) whether these investments are meeting their stated goals, and (2) the value such programs create (if any) and for whom. The research program summarized in this book has, therefore, two main objectives.

First, the research seeks to provide answers to communities, politicians, and school boards who question the value of SRO programs. Second, the research adds to the existing body of work on the subject of public value measurement in general and SROI techniques in particular. This study fills a critical gap in our understanding of the SRO role and should assist other policing services who seek to demonstrate the value that such programs deliver to their governing bodies (e.g., municipalities and provincial or state-level governments). It also illustrates how SROI methodologies can be used to quantify the value of proactive community-based policing activities.

Background

In 2012, a team of researchers from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to conduct research focusing on the changes that were required to make public policing in Canada more sustainable. They were tasked with developing an action-oriented framework for managing change in this sector. The SSHRC initiative was guided by a research advisory board (RAB) that included individuals representing the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Police Boards, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Canadian Police College, and the Staff Relations Representative Program of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). This advisory board assisted us by providing feedback on proposed initiatives and helping us analyze and interpret key findings.

Working with a group of stakeholders from six police services across Canada, as well as other members of the policing and community safety communities in Canada, the research group worked to determine: (1) common challenges facing policing services in Canada, and (2) the vision the various stakeholders have for making public police services more sustainable.

Several of the participating police services asked the research team to focus on identifying and specifying a methodology that their organizations could use to demonstrate to the community they serve, as well as those who fund police services in Canada, the potential “value” of selected roles that they perform in their capacity as police. More specifically, these police services were looking for a methodology that extended the focus of value beyond dollars; they wanted a methodology that captured a greater diversity of inputs than the currently employed methodologies of Return on Investment (ROI) and crime-based data analysis.

The research initiative described in this book was undertaken with Peel Regional Police (often referred to in this report as the “Peel Police”). Key to their participation was the formation of a research steering committee (RSC) specific to this service. The Peel RSC, which was charged with identifying how Peel Regional Police wished to move forward with respect to addressing issues associated with the sustainability of public policing in Canada, was made up of 17 individuals: 11 people who worked for Peel Regional Police (Deputy Chief, Staff Superintendent, Superintendent, Inspector, Detective, Staff Sergeant, three Sergeants/Acting Sergeants, and two Constables), and six civilians who represented the public sector and private sector. These 17 individuals each participated in an hour-long interview to help inform the research to be undertaken in their community.

All members of the Peel RSC agreed that any initiative undertaken within Peel Region should meet two criteria: (1) it should focus on the community as a whole and its relationship with the service, and (2) it should provide insights into how the police could better communicate what they did, as well as the value they provided, to the external community. The Peel RSC was then asked, given these priorities, where they would like the research team to focus their efforts.

After much discussion, the Peel RSC asked the research team to determine the “value” of their existing Neighborhood Police Unit (NPU). More specifically, they wanted the team to focus on the potential value provided by one specific facet of this program – the School Resource Officer or SRO.

Peel Regional Police’s SRO Program

Peel Regional Police Service polices the Peel region of Ontario, Canada. It is the second largest police service in Ontario, following the Toronto Police Service. The police service employs over 2,000 uniformed police officers and almost 1,000 support staff. The area policed by Peel Regional Police contains approximately 1.5 million people, including people from many different cultures. The area includes Toronto’s international airport.

Peel Regional Police assign a full-time police officer to all secondary schools operating in the area policed by their service. The officers who are assigned to area high schools are known as School Liaison Officers (SLOs), School Resource Officers (SROs), or Neighborhood Police Officers (NPOs). Throughout this book, we use the term NPU when talking about the unit to which the school officer is assigned, and SRO to talk about the officer working in this unit, as these are the terms currently in use by the Peel Police.

The SRO program was set up to ensure that all high school students within the Peel Region encounter a safe and positive school setting in which they can live, work, visit, and learn. On their website, Peel Regional Police describe the program as follows:

The primary responsibility of the School Resource Officer (SRO) is to strive to create a safe learning environment at our Secondary Schools. This is achieved by forming positive partnerships with students and school administration. It is encouraged that officers use a proactive style of policing and interact with youth in a non-enforcement manner on a regular basis.

Evaluation of this program was motivated by two primary factors. First, the costs of this program are both easy to identify and significant. Second, it is very challenging to identify the value (if any) that this program provides to students and the community, and, hence, to justify the costs in a time where budgets are being scrutinized. The challenges of quantifying the value offered by assigning full-time SROs to Canadian high schools is evidenced by the fact that such programs are rare in Canada, as police services have responded to pressures to economize by removing officers from schools and eliminating the role of the SRO.

Description of the Program

The NPU was originally designed to focus on street crime enforcement. In 2003, following the implementation of the Street Crime Unit within the Peel Regional Police, the NPU was given a revised mandate to focus on creating a safe learning environment in the region’s secondary schools. SROs assigned to this unit were tasked with dealing with issues in secondary schools as well as liaising between the Peel Regional Police and the region’s secondary schools.

The 2003¹ mandate for the program stated that SROs were responsible for each of the following activities and programs within the secondary school to which they were assigned:

• the enforcement of Federal, Provincial, and Municipal statutes;

• investigations of all such incidents, along with appropriate follow-ups;

• the creation of projects targeting behaviour that interferes with a safe learning environment;

• the monitoring of youth gang activity;

• the delivery of lectures to student groups;

• liaising between school officials and Peel Regional Police; and

• liaising between school officials at assigned feeder schools (Grades 7 and 8 schools) and Peel Regional Police.

In 2011, the Peel Regional Police’s SRO program was given a second revised mandate² that featured the following nine specific directives:

• enhance the safety and security of the community;

• reduce the amount of violent crimes in the schools;

• reduce the involvement of youths in property crimes;

• create safe school environments which promote respect, responsibility, and civility;

• reduce occurrences of drug abuse through education;

• reduce the incidents of lawless public behavior within the school population;

• provide proactive policing in parks, plazas, and other public places where youth are known to congregate;

• increase the involvement of youths in crime reduction strategies and in youth programs; and

• maintain a proactive approach towards suspected gang-related activities.

While the program has gone through a few iterations of its mandate over time, the core objectives are to assign sworn police officers to work in the region’s high schools so as to develop a relationship with the youths living in the region and to enhance perceptions of safety and security in high schools and the community. In that capacity, the SROs work directly with teachers, parents, and the community to ensure that the youths are either on the right path to a positive future or that they can get back to the right path.

There are 60 SROs working in the schools and school catchment areas in Peel Region. These SROs are supervised by eight Sergeants and four Staff Sergeants. The Staff Sergeants have other NPU responsibilities along with the SRO program. The total cost of the program is $9,004,900³ per year (excluding costs for uniforms, law enforcement supplies, etc.).

Using SROI Methodologies to Evaluate the Peel Regional Police’s SROs

A number of facts support the need to use SROI methodologies to assign value to Peel Regional Police’s SRO program. First, the research team found that Peel Regional Police’s investment in the SRO program is among the highest in the country, as many services in Canada, in an attempt to save money, have either eliminated the program altogether or assigned responsibility for multiple schools to one officer. Discussions with a number of Canadian police services revealed that many services have cut these programs because of funding challenges and that many police services do, in fact, feel that these programs provide value. Furthermore, all services that we talked to expressed a strong desire to have access to the SROI analysis so that they could use it to support the reintroduction of such a program in their community if the data showed that it had value.

Second, as noted earlier, a review of the literature indicated that very few systematic evaluations of the effectiveness of SRO programs have been undertaken. Rather, most of the research in the area is descriptive and focuses on what SROs do on a daily basis, the typical traits of these officers, and the perceptions of the program as articulated by key stakeholders. Moreover, the research in this area that did look at the value such programs offered focused on the level to which school administrators and parents expressed satisfaction with the SRO rather than more quantitative measures of value.

Third, Peel Regional Police have never conducted this type of evaluation of their SRO prog...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Value of SROs: The View from Inside the Ivory Tower
• 3 How Do SROs Spend Their Time?
• 4 The Value of SROs: Views from Within (High School Students)
• 5 The Value of SROs: Views from Within (School Administrators)
• 6 The Value of SROs: Views from Within (School Resource Officers)
• 7 The Value of SROs: Views from Above (Staff Sergeants)
• 8 The Value of SROs: Insider Views from Officer Ride-Alongs
• 9 The Value of SROs: Social Return on Investment (SROI)
• 10 The Value of SROs: Summary of Key Findings and Conclusions
• Appendix A
• References
• Index