Biomaterial Database

Reasons police respond in schools: An analysis of narrative data from police incident reports. 2023

Jennifer Greif Green, and Melissa S Morabito, and Jenna Savage, and Natalie Goodman, and Emma Lincoln, and Jenna Lanciani, and Margaret Carroll, and Lindsey Kaler, and Caitlin Cooper, and Marquel Norton, and Ginnelle Vasquez, and Rebecca Muller

Boston University, Boston, MA, United States of America. Electronic address: jggreen@bu.edu.

Communities across the U.S. have acted to eliminate or curb police presence in schools. These efforts have primarily focused on School Resource Officers. However, school staff also call upon local police to respond in their buildings, for example by calling 911. The reasons that police are called upon to respond in schools has rarely been studied. The current study aimed to identify the primary reasons that local police were asked to respond to incidents in one urban school district, and the outcomes of those responses. We analyzed 882 police incident report narratives, selected from a stratified sample of 57 schools in one urban school district during the 2017-18 school year. Incident reports, which were written by officers responding in schools, included narrative descriptions of officer intervention, the events precipitating police involvement, and outcomes of incidents. By coding incident report narratives, we identified categories describing the reasons for police response to events in schools and the outcomes of those events. Most incident reports originating from school addresses (n = 730; 82.8 %) involved students. Among those reports, police most frequently responded to instances of sexual physical violence (17.5 %), physical assault (15.8 %), dysregulated behavior (11.2 %), threatening language (10.8 %), and threat of or actual school violence (4.4 %). Incidents involving students most often resulted in: (1) parents/guardians being contacted (57.3 %), (2) schools engaging in disciplinary actions (39.7 %) or school safety actions (27.0 %), and (3) child maltreatment reports being made to Crimes Against Children (a subdivision of the police department focused on child maltreatment; 26.0 %) or to the Department of Children and Families (26.2 %). Findings indicate that many events leading to police responses in schools are related to maltreatment and behavioral health. These events rarely result in a criminal justice response, and most often result in action by families and schools (e.g., contacting parents/guardians, school disciplinary/safety actions), and filed reports of maltreatment. Additional supports in these areas may have the potential to reduce the perceived need to call upon police and to provide more direct access to services for students.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D002649	Child Abuse	Abuse of children in a family, institutional, or other setting. (APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 1994)	Abuse Experiences, Childhood,Child Neglect,Child Neglect Experiences,Child Neglect, Physical,Childhood Abuse Experiences,Childhood Neglect Experiences,Neglect Experience, Childhood,Neglect Experiences, Childhood,Physical Neglect, Childhood,Child Maltreatment,Child Mistreatment,Abuse Experience, Childhood,Abuse, Child,Child Neglect Experience,Childhood Abuse Experience,Childhood Neglect Experience,Childhood Physical Neglect,Childhood Physical Neglects,Experience, Child Neglect,Experience, Childhood Abuse,Experience, Childhood Neglect,Maltreatment, Child,Mistreatment, Child,Neglect Experience, Child,Neglect, Child,Neglect, Childhood Physical,Neglect, Physical Child,Physical Child Neglect,Physical Child Neglects
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000066550	Physical Abuse	Violence inflicted on an individual through physical contact.	Physical Maltreatment,Physical Violence,Abuse, Physical,Maltreatment, Physical,Violence, Physical
D012574	Schools	Educational institutions.	Primary Schools,Schools, Secondary,Secondary Schools,Primary School,School,School, Primary,School, Secondary,Schools, Primary,Secondary School
D014754	Violence	Use of physical force causing or intent to cause harm, injury or abuse.	Assaultive Behavior,Atrocities,Behavior, Assaultive,Interpersonal Violence,Physical Assault,Physical Attacks,Structural Violence,Violent Crime,Assault, Physical,Attack, Physical,Attacks, Physical,Crime, Violent,Interpersonal Violences,Physical Assaults,Physical Attack,Violence, Interpersonal,Violence, Structural,Violent Crimes
D016495	Police	Agents of the law charged with the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing law and order among the citizenry.	Law Enforcement Officers,Police Force,Police Officers,Enforcement Officer, Law,Enforcement Officers, Law,Law Enforcement Officer,Officer, Law Enforcement,Officer, Police,Officers, Law Enforcement,Officers, Police,Police Forces,Police Officer