As school threats rise, a shortage of school resource officers could threaten safety

THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. (SOA) — By some estimates, the U.S. has had 57 times as many school shootings as all major nations combined from 2009-2018, leading to a debate over the best way to keep students safe. Some districts say that's with a school resource officer or SRO. But there's a worsening shortage of SROs in America, leaving what could be critical safety gaps in our schools.

School resource officer Micah Rose greets students every morning at a Washington state elementary school. He's now in his 7th year on the job and says he loves getting to know the kids by name.

"When kids feel safe in the school, the focus can be on learning," Rose said. "I think the thing that I love most is just the day-to-day, getting to interact with the kids and just building those connections with the kids."

It's those relationships that he believes can prevent the worst-case scenario, at a time when threats are rising.

School districts in Wisconsin, Connecticut, Washington D.C. and Texas have all reported an increase in threats of violence this school year.

Rose believes those threats can be intercepted by an SRO.

"I have students come to me all the time with things that they see or hear, and I'm able to look into that," he said.

That's even as he stretches his time between eight schools and thousands of students.

Still, nationwide, staffing doesn't exist to fill every school that wants an SRO.

The most recent Department of Justice analysis showed there were more than 23,000 sworn SROs in America. Nearly half come from local police departments, which are already short-staffed.

• 69% said they had responded to an incident in a classroom within the past 30 days
• Almost 100% usually carried a firearm
• 17% of SROs are assigned to five or more schools, like Micah Rose

Despite the National Association of School Resource Officers or NASRO, recommending one SRO per school in America, it's an impossibility given the current workforce.

States like Kentucky, Indiana, Minnesota and Tennessee have all struggled to fill the positions.

Micah Rose told us having an SRO is a benefit in the event of an emergency.

"A school resource officer has as an intimate knowledge of the school, of the buildings, of how things work, of the emergency response plans," he said. "The value of having someone who has that knowledge and understanding of that school is a huge benefit in being able to respond if there is some type of emergency."

That's why 1,500 miles away in rural Arizona, officers are swarming into a classroom, to respond to a simulated school shooting.

Spotlight on America was invited to watch active shooter training in St. Johns, Arizona, where officers get the chance to practice in a setting where a familiar SRO might not be standing by.

Mike Kurtenbach, Arizona Department of Education's School Safety Director, spends his time trying to fill the gaps in SROs.

"We only have a little over 300 school resource officers for roughly 2,700 K 12 schools in the state of Arizona, so that's a bit of a math problem," Kurtenbach said. "What it comes down to is there just aren't enough officers."

Kurtenbach said the shortage puts chiefs and sheriffs in a difficult situation.

"They see the value of school resource officers, the importance of having officers on a campus, but there aren't enough officers to go around," he said.

Kurtenbach told us it's "critical" to have officers in schools who are properly trained and a good fit for the job.

"It's hard to measure crime that didn't occur, but if you do your job the right way, you can prevent crime from occurring and you can maintain and create lifelong relationships," he said.

In Arizona, he told us they received requests for 301 SROs statewide, but only have 228, leaving a gap of 73. To address the shortfall, Kurtenbach launched a program that repurposes funding for SROs to staff the school with off-duty police officers and deputy sheriffs, now known as School Safety Officers.

Other states have also come up with creative solutions to fill SRO positions, from offering retention bonuses to hiring veterans and retirees.

This session, a federal bill was introduced to require funding for SROs, but it did not come to a vote.

Meantime, there's an ongoing debate over whether to have police officers patrolling schools.

NASRO touts school resource officer success stories, with SROs credited with saving students across the country.

But a 2023 analysis of public schools found that SROs reduce some form of violence, but do not prevent gun-related incidents, and may increase the use of suspension and arrest.

SRO Micah Rose disputes that.

"It's far more preventative than it is reactive," he said. "I'm not there to find kids to arrest. I'm in my seventh year and I could easily count on two hands the number of times that I have arrested a student."

Still, in the wake of the death of George Floyd, and national protests involving police, cities like Oakland, Rochester, New York, and Seattle, all ended their SRO programs.

In June, a 17-year-old student was shot and killed at Seattle's Garfield High School, a school that had an SRO until the program was canceled in 2020.

Though it's impossible to know what might have been prevented, Micah Rose believes an SRO might have been able to interrupt something before it happened, and he believes the perception of SROs in the public is not always accurate, sometimes blocking what he believes is an invaluable resource.

"There's really a misunderstanding of what the value of those officers are, and it's unfortunate," Rose said. "It's getting into the schools, it's getting to know the kids, getting to know their families, getting to know the teachers and the staff. And then within all that being then able to use those connections and that rapport and that relationship to be able to have an impact on keeping the school safe."