School officers drive patrol cars, wear badges and carry guns, but students often don't view them as real law-enforcement figures or give them proper respect.
However, the heroic response of a Florida school resource officer has been credited with upgrading the profile of campus police -- from security guard status to full-fledged peace-keeper. School police in Georgia and elsewhere have pointed to the Bay County incident as proof that school resource officers can and will use force when necessary to protect school officials and students.
Mike Jones, the Florida school officer, shot a gunman who had fired at Bay County school board members during a public meeting this month. The gun battle lasted 13 seconds. It ended with the suspect, the spouse of a laid-off school employee, shooting himself in the head.
“I think the former detective is a hero," said Chandi Greene, Fulton Schools police chief. "He did exactly what we are trained to do -- put our lives on the line -- and he should be applauded."
In November, the Gwinnett County school board passed a policy upholding the authority for school police to use force when necessary. Cobb County Schools has a similar policy that went into effect last January; Cobb Schools police are allowed to use reasonable force in some situations. Prohibited are choke-holds, neck restraints, firing shots at fleeing suspects and discharging weapons at or while riding in a moving vehicle. Deadly force is allowed in a life-threatening situation or in destroying a vicious animal.
“Cops have the authority for use of force by state law," said Kevin Quinn, spokesman for the National Association of School Resource Officers, which has nearly 4,000 members nationwide. "It doesn’t matter whether they are at a school, a police officer is a police officer.”
Kenrick Bennett, 43, has been in law enforcement since 1998, when he left a Marta job to work as campus officer at DeKalb County Schools in 2009. While he carried pepper spray, a baton and a weapon, and found that his presence deterred crime, Bennett still found people who questioned his role.
“I spent time explaining that, yes, we do have all of the authority of being a police officer and we do have a duty to enforce [the law]," said Kenrick, who currently works for Gwinnett Schools police. "Even teachers are sometimes not clear on our roles. There have been issues from time to time.”
In DeKalb, Bennett has had to use force while making student arrests. “I have dislocated my shoulder trying to wrestle a student to the ground,” he said. “Some of your middle school students, they can be pretty defiant. Some of the tougher incidents have been with young ladies. Most of the boys are more compliant.”
According to Unsafe School Choice Option reports, which track school discipline incidents that are also crimes, infractions rose in Gwinnett between 2009 and 2010. In 2010, school officials reported a felony arson, 22 cases of terrorist-like threats, 225 felony weapons cases, 142 felony drug cases and 301 misdemeanor drug incidents. DeKalb Schools had a dip in similar crimes, reporting 117 non-felony drug cases, 36 felony drug cases, 149 felony weapons incidents and 13 terrorist-like threats.
Most large school districts, such as Gwinnett, Fulton, DeKalb and Cobb, have their own police forces. Atlanta Public Schools uses a local police agency and district officers.
School officers often are required to have more experience than other police because they deal mostly with kids.
“By and large, they tend to be more conservative about the use of force than the average police officer who doesn’t work with kids everyday,” said Kenneth Trump, a National School Safety and Security Services consultant. "Most school resource officers prevent more things from happening than they make arrests.”
Gwinnett's school police program began in 1979 with one officer; there are 23 now serving 161,000 students. School resource officers must have 10 years of experience and a four-year college degree. They average 23 years of experience. Their average salary is $70,933 compared to $38,000 in Cobb Schools.
"We benefit from the knowledge and the expertise they bring with them as experienced officers," said Wayne Rikard, Gwinnett Schools police chief. "They work hard to be very familiar with their school communities. The SROs usually know most of the students at their schools."
Some parents would still prefer to see the role of school police diminished, suggesting that kids are charged in incidents that were once handled administratively.
“My concern is that policemen are trained and judged by how many arrests they make and how they stop crime," said Marlyn Tillman, co-founder of Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline. "Now their beat is your school and their potential criminals are your students. That is a recipe for disaster.’’
Greene, the Fulton Schools police chief, said her department attempts to match an officer's personality to a school community to head off problems.
"Traditionally police in schools were truant officers," Greene said. “We are a fully functioning, bulletproof vest, uniforms, weapons police agency. Our schools go all the way from Palmetto, Ga., to Alpharetta. We respond to a variety of calls. We have had threats against staff members. We have had children involved in violence against staff members.
"Public schools have public problems."
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
