Posted: 9/9/2026 1:44:36 AM EDT
| I’ll start off by saying you get a pass if it’s your retirement gig or you take it the last few years to round out your career. If so, go nuts you earned your easy gig eating the s hit sammich all these years. Having said, odd are if you’re an SRO you can’t cut it being the real police. You’re either a chickenshit and chose it or so pathetic or a liability at doing real police work they stuck you there. Everyone is thinking of their SRO’s now and almost all this is an accurate portrayal. Who in the hell would wanna go babysit kids in a school or go “police “ a college campus ? If you wanna be the police than go be the police. I’ll tell them every time I get the chance that they should be charged with impersonation of a police officer |
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We had some very good SROs in position. Yeah the hours are good, but I would take a mean fighting drunk or asshole criminal any day over having to deal with SRO shit. Between goofy faculty and their rules and liberal beliefs, parents who believed their kids could do no wrong, and holy crap all of the minor level SA stuff that had to be investigated and documented (especially all the phone camera nudes etc.) - no way would I have wanted that. I lost a couple of my best guys on shift to SRO positions. They were great officers who put the time and effort in that I never would have wanted to. Like any job, it is the officer in the position who makes the difference, not the job itself. Oh, and "a pig is a pig"? - Yeah fuck you too. |
If I didn’t need the work I wouldn’t be here,
I’d be back home on the last frontier. . .
I’d be back home on the last frontier. . .
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My observations... A problem child transferred to a SRO position. A lazy officer who will do anything to not do cop work! AND road officers. (Retired on active duty) |
So... I find comfort in the fact that if Trump has to work so hard to go to Heaven, then there is a shit load of Democrats that have no f-cking chance to go anywhere but HELL. Sometimes it is entirely appropriate to kill a fly with a sledge-hammer.
| Not the case here. We have two deputies working two different schools here and they took the job because they were passionate about it. Both are very good police and asked for the assignment because they wanted to make a difference. |
Every normal man, at times, must be tempted to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
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Originally Posted By txice: I’ll start off by saying you get a pass if it’s your retirement gig or you take it the last few years to round out your career. If so, go nuts you earned your easy gig eating the s hit sammich all these years. Having said, odd are if you’re an SRO you can’t cut it being the real police. You’re either a chickenshit and chose it or so pathetic or a liability at doing real police work they stuck you there. Everyone is thinking of their SRO’s now and almost all this is an accurate portrayal. Who in the hell would wanna go babysit kids in a school or go “police “ a college campus ? If you wanna be the police than go be the police. I’ll tell them every time I get the chance that they should be charged with impersonation of a police officer I will say this - when I was in high school we had Arnie as our campus security guard. He carried the same revolver he carried while he was a Chicago street cop, where he had retired. Nobody but nobody gave Arnie any lip, not because of the wheelgun, but because he had earned respect. He handled a lot of things on campus and was appreciated by students and teachers alike. He passed away about 30 years ago, IIRC. He was one hell of a man. |
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Law Enforcement deals with issues by arresting bad guys. Law enforcement these days has turned into a lot of social engineering....focused heavily on domestic relations and mental illness. There is no effective law enforcement actions for either of those problems. If two people don't get along but refuse to break up why are cops forced to get involved? You waste hours and hours booking a domestic battery suspect that you are not really sure was the aggressor only to have the charges dropped when the victim doesn't cooperate after telling you that they just wanted the other person to leave. And mental illness....baker acting someone over and over is pretty useless when the hospitals just want to get rid of them as soon as possible after you drop them off. Meanwhile you have to watch real criminals get away while you are tied up with you useless BS. Being and SRO at least shield you from the 99% of that bullsh*t. Honestly, SROs in schools kind of sucks. Departments look at their high paid officers sitting in the school and start thinking of new busy work programs for them to run. Then you get mission creep. Do you want armed officers or do you want juvenile therapy counselors? A couple of armed, well paid security officers that have one job....protect the kids....would be preferable to a police officer with multiple missions. |
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Do not put officers in school, people get mad. Put officers in schools, people get angry. Get this, it’s the same people getting mad both times. Retired officer? No thanks. I want an officer that trained for this specific job, who know how to handle students and parents. Not some guy that riding out a few more years because they failed at retirement planning. Did I mention almost all of the retired officers that go for SRO positions are obese? Get the right person for the right job. Do you also rail against primary school teachers? If they really wanted to teach they should be teaching at a university or college. Thats where the real reachers are, not the chicken shit primary level. |
Words fall from your mouth like shit from ass.
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I didn't really think much about being an SRO entailed, and assumed it should be a pre-retirement gig for older officers. And then the shooting in the Florida school happened (Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School), and we all saw the cowardly Retired On Duty (ROD) SRO hiding while children were dying. I have buddy that was an SRO for several years. He had to navigate the political waters of school administrators & bureaucrats who usually don’t like law enforcement and have quite frequently interfered with actual law enforcement actions, and still be able and willing to protect kids, even at the cost of his own life. My friend is the kind of guy who could schmooze & charm the school admin into letting him doing his job, and if the worst thing happened and kids were in danger, he’d go handle business. Even if all he had was a fork. Being an SRO requires FAR more than it initially appears it should, and many people are ignorant of those facts and talk about things they don’t know anything about. |
| The only SRO I've had an interaction with pulled me over for passing a slow vehicle just outside of a school zone in a passing zone. No ticket. We talked for about 5 minutes on the side of the road. He pulled me over because he didn't agree with the speed limit change location and the speed limit in the school zone. I asked if he petitioned the NYDOT to have them change it. |
Award: 24/365 Most likely to be an appendix.
"Dealing with Congress is like trying to have an adult conversation about the credit card with your alcoholic bi-polar Ukranian import wife."
"Dealing with Congress is like trying to have an adult conversation about the credit card with your alcoholic bi-polar Ukranian import wife."
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My sons' High School lead SRO was a pro. I met him and was impressed. Former military, SWAT, fit, squared away. He had the eyes. From what I could tell the kids liked and respected him. He seemed to have an excellent rapport. When I asked my sons about him my youngest said they called him "Officer Clutch." He was "certified." He also wasn't kitted up like he was going to kick doors in Fallujah- Black normal police uniform with a compact plate carrier. My boys and their classmates were fortunate- too many SRO seem to be the school district version of armed TSA. |
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Um... quite a few campus police are full fledged state level departments. And plenty of action. They patrol the neighborhoods around campus where student housing is, as well as associated properties. At UCLA, LAFD and LAPD were right along UCPD within about 5 miles of campus. |
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Originally Posted By txice: I’ll start off by saying you get a pass if it’s your retirement gig or you take it the last few years to round out your career. If so, go nuts you earned your easy gig eating the s hit sammich all these years. Having said, odd are if you’re an SRO you can’t cut it being the real police. You’re either a chickenshit and chose it or so pathetic or a liability at doing real police work they stuck you there. Everyone is thinking of their SRO’s now and almost all this is an accurate portrayal. Who in the hell would wanna go babysit kids in a school or go “police “ a college campus ? If you wanna be the police than go be the police. I’ll tell them every time I get the chance that they should be charged with impersonation of a police officer Damn dude, show us on the doll where the SRO touched you... I will assume by your level of hatred, you are 6'4" 230lbs of solid muscle that runs 2 miles in under 10 minutes, SWAT team member, lead detective on the major case squad, does MMA 4 times a week, and has over 1,000 felony arrests under his belt with a stellar 20 year career that is spoken about in squad rooms like legends and lore?? Care to share your extensive LE background? This isn't the GD forum. Anyone who would go out of their way to openly insult and shame someone to their face while they are trying to protect children must be a first rate officer with the creds to back it up... Although anyone with half a brain understands, those who are doing the job, are the ones who applied... No police administrator, at any level, in their right mind would choose a substandard person to do the job if given a choice of using someone else. With the history of school shootings in the US, knowingly choosing an incompetent candidate over a better choice opens them to liability should anything ever happen. When the choice is Cletus the retired 60 year old former deputy from mayberry who falls asleep while sitting in the security car while circling the parking lot... or Hiring the former Army Delta Force Vet with 9 combat tours in the middle east who just finished his masters degree in child psychology... We know they always pick Cletus, right? But you keep slamming the guys who stepped up to do the job... That surely makes you a better man for doing so. |
| I've seen younger guys get into the school gig because they don't want to work the street and want something with weekends, holidays off. Also inside during bad weather, and worst thing they have to deal with is kiddos and teachers. Heaven forbid if they worked 3rds chasing real criminals. This doesn't fit all, but fits a lot I saw. |
| The Karen’s, including the defund the police Karen’s are flipping out in Fairfax county once they pulled the SROs from the high schools. Kids almost get run over for crossing in the wrong area. I maintain that cutting administrators and BOS security would leave plenty of money. Note the police are supposed to fund the SROs, but the school board could do its part as well. |
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The SRO at Sante Fe high school school outside of Houston bravely & rapidly engaged the school shooter and was responsible for saving many lives that day. Retired Houston Police Officer. He was pretty seriously injured by the shotgun of the shooter & underwent multiple surgeries & a long recovery. If they had not recently added tourniquets to their belts, he may well have bled out before the ambulances arrived. Bigger_Hammer 
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BUT RATHER TO SKID IN SIDEWAYS, TOTALLY WORN OUT SHOUTING "HOLY $H!T...WHAT A RIDE"!!
BUT RATHER TO SKID IN SIDEWAYS, TOTALLY WORN OUT SHOUTING "HOLY $H!T...WHAT A RIDE"!!
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It is both more and less complicated than that. The baseline problem is that Patrol is a unique and ultimately corrosive environment to work in, for many. Some people can't handle the workload, shift work and constant exposure to human-created misery, suffering and violence. After a few years of it, they come to the realization that they are not suited that well for it and desperately want to escape it. They also come to the practical realization that they are not going to find a good fit outside of LE where they can make the same kind of money. This is where the great career "sort" happens. Some get out of LE completely. Some figure out what the safest, less stressful LE role is and self-select into it. This is where about 90% of your SROs, 80% of your Detectives and 100% of your community affairs/community policing/other cop jobs that don't involve explosions and gunfire come from. The folks who sorted themselves out of the grind of Patrol work. These are the moral and physical cowards who were never the first (or second or fifth) officer to arrive at the 'shots fired' call, although you'd eventually see them shutting down a street or putting crime scene tape up after the danger had passed. SRO is an escape for these guys. That isn't all of them. Some of the SROs are great guys who needed Day shift hours for a few years for child care reasons or something like that. They stay on SWAT, work out hard and stay tactically proficient. After a few years, they promoted to Sergeant or went back to the streets. However, some guys who go to SRO with the idea of taking a break from Patrol wind up get assimilated into the wishy-washy liberal mindset of the school after a couple of years. Some could still be pretty good cops. Some had lost all semblance of what that entailed. I occasionally got handed SROs to fill in on Patrol or other special assignments during the summers or other breaks. Sometimes they actively conspired to never be there (within policy mind you). Sometimes they showed up for work without important things like body armor. Or guns. And sometimes they were great and enthusiastic. But mostly it was a shitshow. We got out of the SRO business entirely and made the school district do it on their own, mainly because we were sick of them trying to push their leftist policies onto our cops. The school district department they set up after that is all of the worst things we noted about SROs, run by even worse leadership, all beholden to leftist anti-police administrators with nobody to ever say "no" to them. While the individual officers are sometimes nice, as an organization they are entirely ineffective and I do not think they would perform particularly well in a real critical incident. Particularly because we have been to a couple of active shooter scares (unfounded, thankfully) and we wound up running the incident because they sucked that bad. |
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Originally Posted By backbencher: ? I know a guy that was recruited specifically to be an SRO. He did that for a bit then moved on to be a university cop. He gets a free Masters now. Somebody's got to do the job. Kids just utterly disrespect teachers these days. I first noticed the Uni gig when I was an undergrad. Hold it, for four years I make nothing, pay tuition, and at the end of it I get $31k a year, salary, with my BS in Computer Science? While right now, MSU-DPS officers are getting $28k starting pay, plus overtime, plus free tuition, and four years from now their base wage will be more than $31k? (to be fair, starting salary for CS majors was more than $31k four years later, inflation was really something in the 1980s) I met some young DPS officers, but I don't think any of them were teenagers, so it wasn't quite an immediate alternative to attending college. I think most of them had two year CJ degrees from the community college plus the state police academy. |
Exposure to views that distress and offend is a form of education unto itself. -U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Reges v Cauce
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I wish I could get a job as a SRO after I retire from my current fed LE job. 24years + a licensed therapist... but didnt go through a police academy. Hopefully the qualifications change by then. As for the OP, I hope I dont see him post anymore. |
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Originally Posted By txice: Aw cmon …. We all know SRO’s can’t cut the street. Unless it’s your retired gig Very department dependent. When agencies try to kiss the public’s ass and blast SRO goodwill all over social media and then also neuter patrol you get agencies hiring rookies who want to be SROs right off the bat. Then they can’t figure out why nobody is motivated. Mixed messages and hyper over reactive risk adverse managers are killing the profession. It’s great when every applicant wants to be a PIO or SRO, “you’re hired!” Good SROs and programs are worth their weight in gold. |
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| Oh, I agree. Social media has been terrible for law-enforcement. Social media is terrible overall for mankind I believe. Nothing is more embarrassing When you see these cops make a fool out of themselves on social media. I wish some of these departments would begin to hold them responsible making a fool out of themselves in the department issue uniform |
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No local SROs in the public schools. The liberals didnt want armed officers in the schools. For a while the local high school hired a couple of retired deputies as unarmed security personnel who were essentially glorified hall monitors Oh, and campus police are not SROs. |
*post contains personal opinion only and should not be considered information released in an official capacity*
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Originally Posted By olivers_AR: The Karen’s, including the defund the police Karen’s are flipping out in Fairfax county once they pulled the SROs from the high schools. Kids almost get run over for crossing in the wrong area. I maintain that cutting administrators and BOS security would leave plenty of money. Note the police are supposed to fund the SROs, but the school board could do its part as well. They cut some of the school crossing guards (civilian) not the SROS. It happened in Reston, a planned hippy community from the 60's. The high school was put on a curvy road in a high population density suburb. Then the bicycle fags got the BOS to eliminate a whole lane for bikes as a "road diet". It's supposed to slow down traffic and give them a place to ride although, they ride in the middle of the car lane anyway. All it does create more congestion and frustration. Fairfax county schools has school safety. Unarmed uniformed security guards with radios and vehicles but they won't train them to direct traffic which would alleviate the issue, some of them are even retired cops. Meanwhile, the school superintendent has a 4 person security detail. A couple years ago, FCPS revamped the MOU regarding SROS and just wants them to sit on their hands mostly. What little they do is highly dependent on how much the school principal hates them. SROS are either old-timers or people that are hiding from patrol. College campus cops are generally a whole other lower level of dysfunction and incompetence. |
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Originally Posted By TraininginTexas: ... Some get out of LE completely. Some figure out what the safest, less stressful LE role is and self-select into it. This is where about 90% of your SROs, 80% of your Detectives and 100% of your community affairs/community policing/other cop jobs that don't involve explosions and gunfire come from. The folks who sorted themselves out of the grind of Patrol work. These are the moral and physical cowards who were never the first (or second or fifth) officer to arrive at the 'shots fired' call, although you'd eventually see them shutting down a street or putting crime scene tape up after the danger had passed.... You have zero clue, or you work at a seriously fucked up agency... 80% of detectives? LOL... ok... |
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All of the ones in my area are either in it for a retirement gig or they are squared away and just have a passion for it. Not sure what OP is getting at. I'd much rather have good cops in the schools than the alternative. I wish we didn't have the need for it but it's the world we live in. |
| You really think there’s a need for dedicated presence of law-enforcement in every school system? Come on man. Let’s talk about how many times there are school shooters or uprising where they need law-enforcement. It’s over blown and an absolute waste of money. These do nothing should be on the street shagging calls. Oh that’s right they’re too much of a shithead or pussy to go do that. Unless again, it’s a retirement gig and then have at it. Go make all you can eat. |
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Originally Posted By txice: You really think there’s a need for dedicated presence of law-enforcement in every school system? Come on man. Let’s talk about how many times there are school shooters or uprising where they need law-enforcement. It’s over blown and an absolute waste of money. These do nothing should be on the street shagging calls. Oh that’s right they’re too much of a shithead or pussy to go do that. Unless again, it’s a retirement gig and then have at it. Go make all you can eat. Our local school system is around a dozen schools. Depending on what the officer is expected to go theres enough work for an SRO |
*post contains personal opinion only and should not be considered information released in an official capacity*
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I've seen SRO units become dumping grounds for shitty "cops." It's criminal making them responsible for our most defenseless citizens. The exceptions to the above tend to be stellar, though, mainly solid cops looking for the great schedule. |
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