Number of School Resource Officers Hits Thirteen Year High

For thirteen straight years the number of School Resource Officers (SROs) working in North Carolina’s public school has increased.  The Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention – Center for the Prevention of School Violence (DJJDP – Center) has just released its annual SRO census which found there were 813 SROs currently working in the State’s schools.  This marks a 35 officer increase over the year before and the greatest one year increase in the SRO Program in five years.  Since the first SRO census conduct 13 years ago, DJJDP – Center has documented a 570 officer increase. 

DJJDP – Center has been involved with the trend of placing SROs in schools since its establishment and conducts a yearly census to provide information on program growth.  Using a definition developed through research, DJJDP – Center describes an SRO as a certified law enforcement officer who is permanently assigned to provide coverage to a school or a set of schools.  The SRO is specifically trained to perform three roles:  law enforcement officer; law-related counselor; and law-related education teacher.  Creating and maintaining safe, secure, and orderly learning environments for students, teachers, and staff is the goal of the program.

Ninety-seven of the State’s 100 counties and all 15 city school systems have at least one SRO to provide services to their area schools.  Three hundred and twenty-one of the State’s 369 high schools have SROs assigned exclusively to cover them which means that the SRO is not shared with another school.  Three hundred and thirteen of the 452 middle schools have exclusive SRO coverage, and seven percent of elementary schools receive some form of service from SROs. 

The 2007-2008 North Carolina School Resource Officer Census provides detailed information on SRO coverage, funding, law enforcement affiliations, and compliance weapons.  The census as well as other information about the SRO Program can be found at www.cpsv.org