School Resources

School Resource Officers

The Salinas Police Department has utilized police officers as School Resource Officers (S.R.O.) since the late nineteen-seventies. They began with two police officers assigned full-time as School Resource Officers. They wore plain clothes and their mission was to foster an understanding between students and the police.

Today, the mission of the S.R.O. unit has changed to meet the challenges of an ever changing school environment. The Salinas Police Department’s S.R.O. unit provides police services to three school districts, which include four high schools, four middle schools, and twenty-five elementary schools, with a total population estimated at twenty-eight thousand students.

The S.R.O. unit currently has five full-time police officers and one full-time sergeant. The intent of the S.R.O. program is to:

• Improve the image of the police among students;
• Increase communication between police, students, school staff and the community;
• Lessen campus tensions via direct police interaction;
• Provide an opportunity for the police to make presentations to students and parents;
• Allow time for police-youth counseling and diversion (recommending or scheduling youths and parents to other supporting agencies);

The overall mission of the S.R.O. is to provide a safe learning environment for everyone attending public schools in the city of Salinas.