Improving School Policing Programmes through Strategic Collaboration

Abstract

Abstract School–police partnerships that place police officers in K-12 schools are continually forging nationwide, despite a lack of empirical evidence of effectiveness. In response to this trend, we examined the current state of such partnerships, as well as school policing practices in general. We conducted focus groups with educators and school-based law enforcement officers (N = 43) across the state of Texas. Our results revealed five key areas of opportunity for improving collaboration: recognizing the desire for cross-training; knowing who has authority when; nurturing the ‘serve’ component of school policing; gaining community support; and the need for strategic documentation. The present study serves a larger purpose, which is to inform the development of a strategic framework to guide school policing programme implementation. All results indicate a need for and potential positive impact of such a framework to enhance school–police collaboration and thereby improve school policing outcomes.