School Resource Officer
The School Resource Officer (SRO) program places law enforcement officers in schools with the goal of creating and maintaining a safe, secure, and orderly learning environments for students, teachers and staff. The program reflects the desire of our community to ensure that schools are safe, secure and orderly. SROs represent a proactive strategy designed to bring prevention and intervention into the schools.
Throughout the United States each year over 200,000 violent crimes occur on school property and 150,000 students stay home because they are sick of violence and afraid they might be stabbed, shot or beaten. Each day in the U.S. 60 teachers are assaulted and 160 threatened. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 135,000 guns are brought to school each day.
A SRO program is promising strategy because it enables communities and schools to address school violence with both prevention and intervention techniques. By being on campus, SROs can prevent problems from happening. When problems do arise, they can intervene quickly, address what is taking place and intervene appropriately. They contribute to safe school planning efforts and offer their schools a resource to turn to when emergencies occur. Ultimately, the officers presence helps make the school more safe and secure and learning is more likely to take place in such an environment.
Turner County currently has four deputies assigned as School Resource Officers during the school year.
