Video: Impact on School Safety of Collaboration Between Law Enforcement & Rural Schools

• NCJ Number: 254835
• Author(s): Mario Scalora
• Date Published: June 2020
• Length: 1 page
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description

Annotation

In this 5-minute video, Dr, Mario Scalora, Director of the Public Policy Center of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, discusses his NIJ-funded research that examined how police engagement and collaboration with rural school districts has impacted emergency planning and other aspects of school-violence prevention.

Abstract

Dr. Scalora's research used a converging data-collection method that focused on how the nature of law enforcement agencies' engagement with rural school districts impacted school security measures. First, the research team worked with Nebraska's state department of education in developing a self-assessment protocol to be completed by school districts. A second data-collection mechanism was having objective observers monitor the features of collaboration between the school districts and outside agencies, such as law enforcement agencies, third-party observers, educators, and youth. Regarding the cooperation of schools with law enforcement agencies, the study found that nearly one-third of the rural schools had formal school resource officer agreements, and nearly half had informal arrangements. The level of cooperative activity between the schools and the law enforcement agencies determined the intensity of the school prevention and emergency operations response.