Arizona school resource officers gather at annual conference to discuss safety

PHOENIX — The school year has already begun in some Arizona school districts, and the Arizona Department of Education says there could be more officers on school campuses as hiring improves.

This has been a barrier for police agencies in recruiting, making it even more difficult for school districts to find resource officers.

“We saw a decline last year,” said Stephen Dieu, president of the Arizona School Resource Officers Association.

Last year, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) tried a solution: hiring off-duty police officers from different agencies and placing them in other schools. These officers, contracted by the company Off Duty Management, receive shorter training to be in schools. They are called School Safety Officers, or SSOs.

God said they have seen good results from the SSO program.

“From my conversations with the officers who are filling these SSO positions outside of their work hours, there is a renewed interest,” Dieu continued. “I can tell you that when we opened up the selection and application process for our school resource officers, we received more applications than we ever did before.”

ADE figures also show an improvement.

For fiscal year 2024, the ADE said there were only 214 SROs. A spokesperson said they did not have SSO numbers available for the previous fiscal year. For fiscal year 2025, it is estimated there will be 301 SROs and 697 SSOs in schools this year.

“We are positive about the future because hiring has improved, staff shortages have decreased,” Dieu said.

Regardless of their title, campus officers face similar security challenges, whether they are SROs or SSOs. Those challenges and solutions were discussed at the National Association of School Resource Officers’ National Conference on School Security in Phoenix in recent days.

Nearly 2,000 law enforcement officials, officers and school principals came from across the country. God said nearly 300 of those working in those areas were from Arizona. Topics such as school shootings, threat response, drugs and fentanyl, vaping and more were discussed over the course of the days.

“There’s a lot of peer pressure and bullying. That’s what a lot of kids are dealing with right now in schools,” said Phoenix Police Officer Estevan Roman. “We’re going into classrooms, talking about vaping, bullying and things like that to educate kids and bring them together to talk about those types of things.”

Vaping has become a major problem, Dieu said. Some school districts have added vape detectors to deter students from using it. More districts are also adding gun detection systems to school campuses, hoping to prevent weapons from being brought onto campus.

God added that fights are also a problem fueled by social media. Police are constantly trying to discover new trends among students.

“Some of the challenges we face are knowing what’s popular on social media and making it seem safer based on what might be a popular TikTok or Snapchat,” he said of some drugs. “That’s where education and continuing education needs to go.”