As school shootings and teen suicides continue to rise, prioritizing conversations around school violence and safety is at the forefront of many minds – including that of Denver decision-makers, who met Wednesday to evaluate ongoing efforts to protect local students.

Denver Public Schools and the Denver Police Department have been working together contractually since 2004 to help keep schools safe. Representatives from both organizations gave a joint report on the school resource officers (SRO) program, now effective on 18 campuses around the region, during a Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee meeting.

The goal of the SRO program is not only to prevent “more criminalization of kids” and an “increase in the school-to-prison pipeline,” DPS Department of Safety Chief Michael Eaton said, but also “engage students in a positive way in their school communities” and soften the hardened perception some students have of cops.  

The current contract allocates more than $720,000 for 18 SROs, who are placed in 14 high schools and four middle schools in the metro area.

Officers in the program are chosen if they are in good standing, have a history of working with kids and have successfully interviewed with both DPS and the police department, according to Ron Thomas, chief for Denver Police Department’s Patrol Division.

“The reason why we go through that process is, really, to develop some buy-in both on behalf of the department and the school,” Thomas said.

SROs, once hired, also are required to complete an eight-hour training course that goes over implicit bias, cultural awareness, adolescent brain development, trauma-informed practices, mental health first-aid, and protocol for the Safe2Tell service, an anonymous tip line for reporting potential threats and mental health incidents.

Another requirement for school resource officers is annually attending a 40-hour training conference and completing a module focused on “bridging the gap” between kids and cops.

DPS and DPD pointed to a decrease in arrests, something they said was due to the SRO program, at least in part.

Another point of pride was a revision to the SRO program’s handcuffing policy, effective as of September, which now bans anyone 12-years-old or younger from being handcuffed or restrained by another device.

Forty-five percent of students handcuffed in the last two years by the DPS Department of Safety were African American – a “huge disproportionality,” Eaton said, considering they only represent 14% of students.

Eaton said he was proud of the work being done but also acknowledged there was still “a lot of work to do.” And some councilmembers on the committee agreed with that, expressing some concerns.

Councilwoman Robin Kneich asked about how SROs handle suicide threats and found it “very surprising” that mental health professionals were not being deployed with officers when addressing a student in distress.

Eaton said that most of these calls come after school hours, when personnel is not working, and said they were working with the resources they had.

Kneich said she worried that “the uniform carries a message” and can often escalate a sensitive situation involving a vulnerable person. She suggested “de-emphasizing a uniformed approach,” a tactic Eaton said they should look at carefully so as not to backtrack on developing a positive relationship between kids and cops in uniform.

Councilwoman Jamie Torres expressed concern that the long-term approach of the SRO program was indefinite, with no way to build itself out of, or graduate from, a school after goals are met.

Eaton said the goal is to stay – to build relationships and systemically “create a culture that supports a positive role model” over a long period of time.

Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca suggested the need for a “formal tool” to evaluate student feedback and ensure there is data-driven justification to place, or not to place, SROs in schools.

Without hard data, CdeBaca said, “we’re not doing a service to our students.”

The SRO program is reflective of a shift in Colorado’s violence-prevention approach, wherein individual districts are tasked with developing their own safety procedures, a strategy the state auditor has criticized for creating a patchwork of policies.

State Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Democrat who chairs the school safety committee created after the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting in May, is considering legislation that would mandate the state’s school districts to meet official standards around response to violent threats.