NCJ Number
216736
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 34 Issue: 6 Dated: 2006 Pages: 591-604
Date Published
2006
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article presents an overview of the development of school police officers, an outline of issues to be considered in conceptualizing school police officers, and a discussion of the methodological issues related to the assessment of school police officers.
Abstract
It is important that school officials, school police officers and administrators, researchers, and public policymakers come together to adequately conceptualize school police officers, study the impact the officers have on school and society, and identify a clear set of reasonable duties and goals which the officers may be expected to fulfill. Addressing these issues now will lay a solid foundation from which school law enforcement services may be prepared to proactively adapt. School police officers are a relatively new form of public servant. Prior to the 1990s, school police officers were rare. Over the past decade, the number of police officers serving in schools has increased tremendously. They perform a variety of educational, correctional, law enforcement, and role modeling tasks to a population of highly mischievous and partially institutionalized juveniles. This is a large array of chores or duties. Different law enforcement agencies have different policies, procedures, and expectations of officers, making it impossible to describe a uniform set of duties required of school police officers. Few studies have been conducted on the role of school police officers. It is imperative that scholars develop an adequate understanding of the role of these officers. Methodologies need to be utilized that incorporate a variety of strategies and a number of measures of the potentially positive and negative impact the officers may have on schools, communities, and society. References