Many years ago, my partner and I were on a case that took us to a big city with serious inner-city school issues. A tall fence topped with concertina wire encircled the bleak high school while parent volunteers patrolled the halls, carrying walkie-talkies so they could communicate with the school's office. At the time, school resource officers were not common fixtures in the schools; most systems were in the process of starting SRO programs. Those initial efforts led to a lot of misconceptions about what SROs were all about. Some departments-not all, but some-used the opportunity to rid themselves of officers who were low performing. Guys who were out-of-shape, older and less capable were sometimes relegated to working on school campuses. Some department heads saw it as a good place to send female officers because they viewed them as less valuable members of their agencies.
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