Police will be ready if, when school resource officer programs resume

It appeared as though the school resource officer (SRO) debate had mostly been resolved in the province.

School boards were left to decide for themselves and several, including the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), which decided to end its program in 2021.

That same year the Waterloo District Catholic School Board (WDCSB) opted to indefinitely pause its program.

But, proposed legislation from the Ministry of Education, announced earlier this week, would force school boards to reinstate SROs if one is offered by the local police force.

Waterloo Regional Police (WRPS) Chief Mark Crowell was a guest on The Mike Farwell Show. He said their previous officer resource program was the envy of other forces.

“We had an excellent SRO program here. It actually was a model here in the province, and that allowed us to do many things. Those investigative connections, some role modelling, some positive interactions and so on.”

Crowell described a new program being developed by the force.

“We are working on the next version of something called a police school protocol. And, that is the document that mandates how our relationship works. How we respond to schools in the case of emergency and how we’re going to conduct business on a proactive or preventative basis.”

He says the next iteration of the school resource program, should it return, will be much different than the past program.

“I don’t believe we will be resurrecting the SRO program exactly in the way we had in the past. And, I think to mutual benefit and understanding, we’ve recognized there is a roll for us to play within an educational school environment as required.”

Back in November, Kitchener South-Hespeler MPP Jess Dixon tabled a motion to bring SROs back to the province’s schools, saying at the time she believed strained relationships between certain groups and police could be mended through such programs.

WRDSB ended its SRO program over concerns that some students, particularly Black, Indigenous and racialized students, might not feel safe with a police officer in the hall. That same reason was given for several other boards ending the programs in the past few years.