Policing Education: An Empirical Review of the Challenges and Impact of the Work of School Police Officers

Highlights Systematic review of literature on the roles, training, and impact of school police officers (SPOs). SPOs occupy conflicting roles with high authority and little preparation. Presence of SPOs is associated with no changes or increases in exclusionary discipline. Presence of SPOs is associated with an overall null effect on safety and increases in student arrest. Recommendations center on clarifying and limiting the roles of SPOs through formalized partnerships. Public concerns regarding school safety and zero‐tolerance education policies have contributed to the growth of a workforce of school police, or frontline school safety professionals who are typically placed in schools with the authority to arrest students (Brown, 2006). Thus, school police represent a workforce positioned at the nexus of multiple systems, including education and juvenile justice, and whose work likely brings them into contact with underserved youth and families. Despite national representation of this growing workforce (e.g., National Association of School Resource Officers), little is known about the responsibilities, roles, training, and influence of school police. This manuscript aims to (a) advance understanding of the school police workforce, including in relation to school police training, needs, roles, and influence, through a systematic review of scholarship in the social sciences, with a focus on peer‐reviewed research in education, psychology, social work, criminology, and juvenile justice; and (b) generate empirically supported recommendations integrating key conclusions that pertain specifically to targeting the challenges faced by the school police workforce and identifying the best strategies to enhance safety‐related goals while mitigating disproportionate legal and educational consequences for underserved youth and families.