Introduction
Incidences of crime or criminal activities within school settings have increased significantly within the past few years promoting the need for increased patrol within school settings by law enforcement officers. The demand for police in school settings has also been prompted by cases of school shootings some of which have had negative impacts on the education sector about the safety of the students. According to Hopkins (2014), the idea of police within school settings serves the general purpose of ensuring that the overall structure of a response to criminal activities within such settings meets the set-out expectations. On the other hand, this also helps towards increasing interaction between law enforcement agencies and students in a bid to understanding any notable changes in behaviors among the students. From that perspective, this report will evaluate the topic on police in school settings as a way of understanding the overall impacts that this has had in such settings.
Effects of Police Presence in School Settings
According to Mckenna & Pollock (2014), youth violence and school shootings remain vital issues affecting schools not only in the United States but also other developed countries around the world with a majority of these cases being preventable. However, lack of adequate approaches by law enforcement agencies in dealing with such cases acts as one of the contributing factors to the rapid increase in such incidences. Thus, this has prompted more school principals to adopt the idea of using police officers, who engage in patrols within the school settings in a bid to preventing such occurrences. Most of the officers engaged in police patrols in school settings tend to focus more of their attention towards understanding student behavior while, at the same time, enhancing student safety at all times while in the school environment.
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Another notable impact of police in school settings is that this has played a key role towards easing the tension created between police officers and youths, which is one of the sole factors contributing to a rapid rate of crime increase. One likely scenario within different societies is that youths tend to develop a sense of fear for police officers, which affects the overall levels of trust between the police and the youth (Thurau & Wald, 2009). However, engagement of police and the youth in school environments helps in shaping a favorable view of the police about the youth. Ultimately, this plays a crucial role in changing how youths engage with the police in any given social environment, as well as, helps in ensuring that the youths understand their role in crime prevention. On the other hand, some of the stakeholders in the education sector tend to share less optimistic views about the consequences associated with police presence within school environments. According to Na & Gottfredson (2013), increased police presence in school environments creates a harsh discipline platform considering that the students ought to abide by the rules of the school, which tends to have negative or harmful impacts on the later lives of the students. In most cases, this results from a situation where police officers, patrolling school environments, respond harshly to minor offenses by some of the students. Also, this may also result from a situation where school principals tend to rely on the police officers as legal advisors regardless of whether or not these officers understand the application of specific laws. Ultimately, this would create a negative environment between students and the police officers, thus, resulting in negative interactions.
References
Hopkins, N. (2014). School pupils' perceptions of the police that visit schools: Not all police are ‘pigs.' Journal of community & applied social psychology , 4 (3), 189-207.
Mckenna, J. M., & Pollock, J. M. (2014). Law Enforcement Officers in Schools: An Analysis of Ethical Issues. Criminal Justice Ethics , 33 (3), 163-184.
Na, C., & Gottfredson, D. C. (2013). Police officers in schools: Effects on school crime and the processing of offending behaviors. Justice Quarterly , 30 (4), 619-650.
Thurau, L. H., & Wald, J. (2009). Controlling partners: When law enforcement meets discipline in public schools. NYL Sch. L. Rev. , 54 , 977.
