Only a small portion of the 33,000 students in St. Vrain Valley School District has either been cited or arrested by specially trained police officers working in local classrooms, according to a report detailing the work of the School Resource Officer program.
The city council asked city staff to provide a report on the work of SROs in February so the community would have an opportunity to have speak on the topic.
Both Denver Public Schools and the Boulder Valley School District have opted to remove SROs from their campuses over complaints that minority students were unfairly singled out by in-school police.
In the report to the council — which will be reviewed during a study session Tuesday — the training of SROs is shown to be specialized and geared toward preventing the “prison to pipeline” flow of problem students to incarceration.
SRO training includes, but it is not limited to, “childhood trauma and adverse childhood experiences, working with students with disabilities, mental health issues in children, cultural diversity and implicit bias,” the report states.
SROs also worked with city agencies and offices to develop the Rebuilding Expectations and Waking in New Directions, or REWiND, program. REWiND brings in professionals to assess youth needs to attack recidivism and address the root cause of a youth’s behavior, the report states.
Over the past two years, no arrests were initiated by Longmont SROs and only three out of 181 summonses were issued by SROs, according to the report. In 2019-2020, out of the 1,935 calls for service at school properties, only .04% resulted in a summons and .005% resulted in an arrest, the report states.
Of the 11 arrests made during the 2019-2020 school year, six were Hispanic suspects and five were white. Of the 100 summonses, 58 recipients were identified as white, 39 as Hispanic and three were Black, the report states.
The city continues to refine the SRO program, the report states. “We will continue to modify systems and build upon what is working in order to address needs and gaps in service,” according to the report.
Correction: The article previously stated that the city council "had fears" about the SRO program "targeting minority students for tickets and arrests." The article has been corrected to better represent their motives for asking for a report.
