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SRO Program <br />In January 2002, the Pleasanton Police Department and the Pleasanton Unified School <br />District implemented the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program as a joint effort to enhance <br />the safety and wellbeing of students. <br />SROs are assigned to high schools and work in collaboration with school officials to facilitate <br />and enhance campus safety. They investigate incidents on campus, and act as a liaison <br />between school officials and the police department. The officers also engage with students in <br />non -enforcement situations to foster lasting relationships by deconstructing barriers between <br />youth and law enforcement in the spirit of community policing. The presence of the SROs <br />offsets the impact to patrol officers who would otherwise be handling routine calls on school <br />campuses. <br />Between 2015-2019, the Pleasanton Police Department responded to an average of 1,089 <br />calls for service at Pleasanton schools and authored an average of 229 police reports each <br />year at these schools. SROs are dedicated for school -related calls and provide a prioritized <br />response to campuses during school hours of operation which provides consistency to the <br />schools by ensuring the same officers respond and are available for follow-up with and aware <br />of campus -related issues. <br />SRO programs have come under recent scrutiny. Some critics of the program cite a 'school <br />to prison pipeline' correlation between SROs and students. However, recent studies have <br />shown that while SROs are exposed to more student criminal situations, they arrest students <br />at equal rates as a patrol officer. In addition, a 2009 study by the University of Tennessee <br />found that "when SROs do arrest a student, they tended to downgrade the severity of the <br />charges against the student".' <br />Some research suggests SROs have a better understanding of possible school related <br />consequences associated with a student's behavior and therefore are less likely to increase <br />the severity of charges against a student. "Furthermore, SROs create the opportunity for <br />school -aged children to have non -confrontational, non enforcement contacts with law <br />enforcement officers that may contribute to more positive opinions of the police later in life"." <br />The data on SRO programs varies. There are a number of research papers and <br />recommendations including a recent article by the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil <br />Rights that argued SROs did not improve school safety or reduce school violence and that <br />their presence resulted in more suspensions and expulsions for students of color. <br />A review of SRO programs written by the National Institute of Health (NIH) stated "The best <br />designed and most representative study of SPO [NIH refers to SRO as SPO -School Police <br />Officers] influence to date suggest that increases in the SPO workforce in schools is related to <br />increases in reporting of crimes, higher likelihood of harsher punishments for students, higher <br />rates of weapon and drug crimes, and more reporting of non -serious violent crimes, compared <br />to rates in schools without SPOs.""' The NIH report also included a recommendation of <br />formalizing the relationship between PD and SPO in a memorandum of understanding. <br />Page 2 of 6 <br />