NCJ Number
127109
Journal
School Safety Dated: (Fall, 1990) Pages: 4-8
Date Published
1990
Length
5 pages
Annotation
When deciding the proper response to school security issues, it is critical that it be a systemwide decision and not an individual school's choice.
Abstract
The systematic collection of all "security incident data" in the schools must occur before any decision can be made or any serious discussion can take place. Once collected, the data must be analyzed in a process called incident profiling. Filed by the category of offense, school incidents can be analyzed to determine where and when to deploy resources. A school district is then prepared to begin discussion about how it should best respond to real incidents or the potential threat of violence to the educational system. Five basic options are available to any school district selecting a security response: (1) do nothing; (2) employ local police; (3) contract with a guard service; (4) hire security professionals; and (5) combination of options 2, 3, and 4. Regardless of which option is selected, other than doing nothing, every school system needs to establish an office of school security with a competent person as the director or chief.