NCJ Number
196707
Date Published
July 2002
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This report presents findings from the 2001 Virginia Crime Prevention Center’s second canvass of Virginia’s School Resource Officers (SROs) located within the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services focusing on SRO programming and turnover among SROs.
Abstract
In 1999, the Governor’s office of Virginia canvassed and found that, statewide, there were 114 School Resource Officer (SRO) programs and 351 SRO positions. In 2000, with the growth in the number of SRO programs and SROs, there were State efforts to improve program standards and SRO training, as well as media coverage of school shootings. Updated information on SRO programs was collected and identified 129 local programs and 427 funded SRO positions. In 2002, a second statewide canvass of SRO programs was conducted. SRO programs are defined as a law enforcement agency having one or more funded SRO positions. This report presents the findings from this updated statewide canvass. All Virginia police departments and sheriff’s offices were surveyed with information requested on number of years the program had been in operation, the number of agency SRO positions, the number of SRO positions currently vacant, and funding sources for 2001-2002 SRO positions. Findings from the canvass revealed 145 local SRO programs in Virginia. Additional findings found 35 of 40 Virginia cities had SRO programs, 84 of 95 Virginia counties had SRO programs, and 24 of 192 Virginia towns had SRO programs. In addition to general program number information, the following was found: the average age of a local program was 4.4 years, the average size of a program was 3.5 positions, there were 501 SRO positions funded in Virginia, 62 percent of the 501 SRO positions were assigned to police departments and 38 percent were assigned to sheriff’s offices, and 81 percent of the 499 SROs were assigned to one school. Tables