WHAT IS A SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER (S.R.O.)?

A school resource officer is a law enforcement officer who is deployed in a community-oriented policing assignment to work in collaboration with one or more schools. Woodland PD started a School Resource Officer program after receiving a U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Hiring grant in 1998. The Department operated with two S.R.O.s until 2015. Currently, the department has three S.R.O.s.

 Facilitating the development of positive relationships: The S.R.O. program assigns sworn police officers to work in the city’s schools with the goal of facilitating the development of positive relationships with the youth living in the region and enhancing perceptions of safety and security in high schools and the community.

 Woodland PD’s S.R.O.s do not arrest students for disciplinary issues that would be handled by teachers and/or administrators. On the contrary, S.R.O.s help troubled students avoid involvement with the juvenile justice system. There is no epidemic of juvenile arrests within our schools.  In fact, juvenile arrest data shows an overall decline over the last ten years in Woodland. The SROs have strong partnerships with school staff and work together to prevent negative behaviors and intervene before student actions escalate from administrative to criminal issues.

WHAT IS RESTORATIVE JUSTICE?

Restorative Justice is one approach that can be used to address harm when a crime has been committed. This method includes the facilitation of a meeting between the victim, the offender, and in some cases members of the community. This approach focuses on healing and the making of amends and gives offenders the opportunity to learn from the impacts of their behavior.

 A benefit to the Restorative Justice process is that it can empower victims to have their voices heard and their needs addressed. It also holds offenders accountable for their behavior and potentially provides an opportunity for them to make things as right as possible. By learning the impact that their behavior had, the intention is that offenders will make better choices in the future and therefore decreasing the chance of the negative behavior continuing, and crime is then reduced.