The Roles of Police Officers in Schools: Effects on the Recording and Reporting of Crime

Deploying police officers, known as school resource officers (SROs), in schools is a popular school crime prevention strategy. This study tested whether specific SRO roles, rather than the presence or absence of SROs, influenced school crime and reporting of crimes to law enforcement differently. Specifically, schools with officers serving a law enforcement only role as well as those with officers who also teach and/or mentor (“mixed SROs”), were compared with schools without officers. The study used a longitudinal sample (N = 480) from the School Survey on Crime and Safety for the years 2004, 2006, and 2008. Results suggest that the level of crime recording and reporting generally increased with SRO presence. Further, schools with law enforcement only SROs recorded more crimes than non-SRO schools, and contrary to hypotheses, schools with mixed SROs reported more crimes to law enforcement. Future research should expand on the typology of SROs used in this study