The state’s Juvenile Justice Assistance Group is launching a study of the use of school resource officers as one way to improve school safety.
Barry Stoodley, the chair of the group, says the study is important and timely.
“With all of the school shootings and the discussion about arming teachers and more policing in the schools and so forth, the JAG thought it would be advantageous to initiate this study,” he says.
As of 2017, there were 67 school resource law enforcement officers working in 93 schools in 51 communities. There are 620 public schools in the state. The study will look at how school officers are hired, trained and how effective they are in dealing with a whole range of school-based issues. The group says there is not much data on school officers.
“The amount of information available on school resource officers is very limited in terms who is recruited, what kind of schools they are being used in, what their training is,” Stoodley says.
