Tim Servoss Participates in National Conversation about School Resource Officers

October 30, 2020

BUFFALO, NY - Associate Professor of Psychology Timothy J. Servoss, PhD, spent the last week of October 2020 participating in a national conversation about the impacts of school resource officers on students, school discipline and crime.

Servoss was one of just nine researchers invited to participate in the week-long virtual meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice. The federal agencies convened research scholars and practitioners to provide their perspectives, expertise and feedback on research, practice and policies regarding the roles of school resource officers and school-based policing. Servoss shared his specific expertise in discussions related to the impacts of school police on students and school discipline, and the use of school police moving forward. The outcomes from these meetings will be used to inform a report from the National Institute of Justice to Congress.

Security measures in American high schools are meant to keep students safe but research published by Servoss has found that the nationwide trend of embedding security cameras, resource officers and even police officers in schools is having unintended consequences. To learn more about Servoss' research, click here.