Program Partner Spotlight: NASRO
03-21-2024
This is a guest blog Q&A with the National Association of School Resource Officers.
The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) is dedicated to making schools and children safer by providing the highest quality training to school-based law enforcement officers and school safety professionals. NASRO, the world’s leader in school-based policing, is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1991 for school-based law enforcement officers, school administrators and school security and/or safety professionals who work as partners to protect schools and their students, faculty and staff members.
- How did you first hear about NCMEC? Because of the nature of our organizations and the services we perform, it’s hard to pinpoint a time when we weren’t aware of NCMEC. Our missions to protect children dovetail and school resource officers (SROs) have always looked to NCMEC as a resource.
- What inspired you to get involved with NCMEC? NCMEC and NASRO are both organizations dedicated to protecting children. Just like schools are safer when stakeholders work as a team, we believe that we are stronger when we pool resources and work together toward common goals. Organizations such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are valuable partners in educating NASRO members on the latest trends in topics such as sextortion, child abuse and bullying. SROs, administrators, teachers and other school safety stakeholders greatly benefit from having access to NCMEC’s training and resources.
- Why are NCMEC’s resources important to school resource officers? NCMEC offers a plethora of resources and trainings that enable school resource officers to protect the students they serve. Whether it’s education around safely using social media or how to have an inappropriate photo of a minor removed from the internet, NCMEC enables SROs to address significant and pervasive issues using best practices.
- Are there any initiatives you think everyone should know about? We’re very excited about our newest training opportunity – Project Unite. Schools are best safe guarded against violence when stakeholders work together as a team toward a collective goal of preventing violence before it occurs. With this concept in mind, Project Unite focuses on bringing school safety stakeholders together and educating them on violence prevention initiatives using a systematic approach. The key components, or systems, of Project Unite are: (1) positive school culture and climate, (2) bystander reporting and response, (3) information sharing and (4) behavioral threat and suicide assessment and management. Project Unite provides step-by-step guidance for implementing each component informed by federal recommendations, research and community policing principles.
- What do you think is important for parents and families to know about NASRO? We are training SROs to better protect schools and communities while building positive relationships with students. We encourage parents to treat SROs, of course, as resources but also as partners in protection. It takes all of us working together to keep schools safe.