Will having more school police officers inside schools make students and teachers safer?

After violent tragedies in schools it can be tempting to suggest that the best way to ensure school safety is to have more officers roaming hallways and lunchrooms, and responding to every discipline matter that comes up. However, having more police officers in schools has not shown to be an effective way to increase school safety. Students and teachers have reported feeling less safe with an increased police presence.

And, when there are more police officers walking school hallways, patrolling cafeterias, or watching classrooms, they are more likely to be used inappropriately to respond to routine discipline matters rather than real security threats.

An increased police presence may be of particular concern to students with disabilities, LGBTQ students, and students of color who are more likely than their peers to have negative contact with police, like arrests and use of force incidents, even though they are not more likely to misbehave.

As demonstrated by the tragedy in Uvalde on May 24, 2022, school police officers and officers from other law enforcement agencies do not prevent school shootings. For more information about police in schools, check out the National Campaign for Police Free Schools .

What is Implicit Bias?

Discrimination can be conscious, intentional, and systemic. Additionally, someone can make assumptions that are implicit, or unconscious, but can still impact how that person views and responds to the behavior of others. Studies have shown that these unconscious assumptions, or implicit biases, can play out in school discipline and policing, resulting in an increase in the frequence and severity of punishments for Black and Brown students.

To learn more about Implicit Bias, check out this 2020 article from Contexts of the American Sociological Association.