Creating a Safe School Network for the Golden State

In the late 1990’s school resource officers and school administrators from several agencies in the inland empire began meeting on a regular basis for networking and training.  Although school resource officers (SRO) positions have existed in one form or another for many years, training and networking opportunities were scarce.  These meetings were the exception and soon SRO’s were traveling as far a Kern, San Diego and the far reaches of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties for the opportunity to share in possibilities of problem solving and sharing of solutions to problems specific to school based policing and safety.

In 1998 Deputies Craig Hampton and Anthony Goss, both passionate school resource officers from Riverside County, met for the first time at a county wide meeting addressing school safety issues.  Deputy Goss was assigned to the affluent community of Temecula, California and Deputy Hampton assigned to the unincorporated area know as Mira Loma, California, an integrated community combining the old farms and horse properties and some upper middle class neighborhoods. 

This meeting was hosted by Dr Dave Long, the Superintendent of Riverside County Schools, who combined his respect and admiration for Peace Officers with his Passion for a safe school environment.  The result involved school resource officers in the process of planning for and evaluating school safety in Riverside County, an area primarily attended to by school administrators.

Dr Long, who was affected by the infectious passion for school policing programs, soon threw his influence as an elected official and statesman behind the ideas of Goss and Hampton.  Dr Long was soon forging the same type of relationship with Sheriff Bob Doyle of Riverside County.

These partnerships lead to several countywide safety focused meetings, widely attended by people at all levels of school safety responsibility.  Mr. Wayne Sakamoto a safety manager with the San Diego Office of Education was introduced to this collaborative as they expanded to consider the possibility of a statewide conference to share their talents and experiences in this arena.

In August of 2001, the California School Resource Officers’ Association hosted their first statewide conference for school safety officials.  184 participants attended the conference from 72 agencies throughout the state.  Jim Corbin, a nationally known provider of school resource officer training provided vital information and contacts for participants throughout the state. He served as moderator for the first conference that took place in the theater of the Temecula High School.

The focus was providing an opportunity for these participants to network and form collaborations to address real world issues and provide quality targeted training.

With the support of each of the above named founding members of the association they incorporated in 2003, and then soon received classification as a non-profit organization.

The annual conferences are a must attend event for all California based school safety professionals.  In 2006 with participants and advisors from all over the state the California School Resource Officers Association underwent a re-organization effort.  The reorganization will result in a transparent, professional and resilient association that will meet the needs of school safety professionals will into the new millennium.