Classroom Cops, What Do the Students Think? A Case Study of Student Perceptions of School Police and Security Officers Conducted in an Hispanic Community

Abstract

Although the number of police officers serving in schools has escalated in recent years, few studies of student perceptions of school police have been conducted. This study presents an analysis of data on student perceptions of school police officers and school security officers which were obtained from surveys administered to a sample of predominantly Hispanic students who reside in a predominantly Hispanic community. Descriptive analyses of the data show that the majority of students view the officers favourably, but comparisons of the present findings with previously published research on adult perceptions of the police indicate that the percentage of students who view the officers favourably is lower than the percentage of adults who view the police favourably. Regression analyses of the data indicate that gender has a varying impact on different measures of attitudes toward the officers, that year in school has no impact on perceptions of the officers and that personal knowledge of crime and delinquency in the schools has a negative impact on perceptions of the officers. The regression analyses also suggest that race/ethnicity has no impact on student perceptions of the officers; a finding which is consistent with prior research on perceptions of the police conducted in areas with sizeable racial/ethnic minority populations.