| The increasing amount of violence in United States schools has generated concerns about student and worker safety, which has resulted in the desire for a greater police presence in schools. Police have maintained a presence in schools for decades, particularly in large urban areas, where police officers were a regular part of the security aspects of a school. Because school shootings have occurred in both rural and suburban areas, the need to place more police officers in schools now transcends geographic limitations. Some school districts have created their own police department while others have hired school resource officers who are contracted through a traditional police agency. Different competencies may be needed for an officer to be effective in a school police role than in a traditional police role. Therefore, the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) theory was utilized in this qualitative study to determine the perspectives of Texas school district police chiefs on the types of competencies that constitutes an effective school district police officer and whether those competencies were present and detectable prior to employment. This empirical qualitative case study produced the emergence of three themes; communications, service orientation, and self-presentation. The results showed that these competencies were present to varying degrees. The findings indicate that further research is needed in public school district policing. |
