I am writing in response to the commentary appearing in the Jan. 28 edition of the Cape Gazette titled, “Making a case for SROs in Delaware,” by Joey Melvin. I would like to support his position regarding school resource officers with my own personal experience with this important resource for keeping children safe in schools.
I served 33 years in a local municipal police department in Lancaster County, Pa. Due to nationwide upward trends in violence in schools since the late 1990s, police departments and school districts began to form partnerships to address the issue. Our department was experiencing a sharp increase in patrol responses to schools to deal with violent incidents. This situation often pulled police resources away from protection and service to the general community. In 2007, our police department partnered with our local school district, which has a student population in excess of 7,000, to establish a school resource officer position within the high school.
Toward the end of my career, I was promoted to lieutenant, and one of my responsibilities included direct supervision of our department’s SRO. One of the primary benefits of having an SRO in a school is the ability to disrupt and prevent many incidents before they brewed to the point where injury or death resulted. The SRO was able to intervene early in conflicts. This is mainly due to the critical relationships the proper SRO establishes within the school community, to include students, staff, faculty and administrators. Another benefit of this early SRO intervention was the drain of patrol unit responses to schools also decreased, and these resources remained available to address issues across the remainder of our municipality.
Our SRO integrated as a valuable and respected member of the school community. He performed in the school’s talent show (banjo player), participated in extracurricular activities and even established and acted as the advisor of an after-school club, which many students enjoyed.
As Joey Melvin pointed out, the ability to accomplish this is the result of careful selection of the officer, proper training of the officer and support of the police department, school district and community. As a retired police lieutenant and a current security consultant, I am very familiar with the work done by Joey Melvin and the Center for Safe Schools. The safety of children across our state and nation is an issue which deserves nothing less than our best efforts to protect them. I support Joey Melvin’s efforts as he makes his case!
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