School Resource Officer

An officer at school full-time, is the school that bad? This is the most common question when an officer is assigned to a school. The answer is no. The officer is on campus because of a community service program commonly called the "School Resource Officer" (S.R.O.). This concept is not new. It has been around for years. In The Colony, the S.R.O. has been assigned to The Colony High School since 1993 and was the first in Lewisville Independent School District. The S.R.O.'s mission is to serve as a liaison between the students, teachers, administration and the police department.

The S.R.O.'s job is multi-faceted. Yes, the S.R.O. will arrest students when they have committed a criminal act, but that is not the main role of the S.R.O. The S.R.O. must maintain an image that will reflect a positive influence toward everyone - especially the students. The S.R.O. should serve as a good role model and have people know that they can come to him with any problem without fear of being persecuted. This is not an easy task. Kids and adults alike may have a misguided view of police officers because of their upbringing, media attention, and/or negative contact with police. Therefore, it is important that the S.R.O. have a lot more positive contact with people at school.

The positive contact is achieved by interacting primarily with students, but also with teachers. The S.R.O. teaches classes on drugs, violence prevention, and other issues facing society. The S.R.O. will talk with the teachers and staff and help resolve legal issues facing the teacher-student relationship. The S.R.O. will take reports when a crime has occurred on campus. The best way to describe the S.R.O. is that he is an officer whose beat is the school and is required to deal with the kids on a positive basis, but will not hesitate to do his/her job when a crime has occurred.

The Colony S.R.O. is Detective Alex Cochran and he is assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division. Detective Cochran works along with other criminal investigators during the summertime investigating criminal offenses.

For more information on the S.R.O. program you can contact Detective Cochran at his office at The Colony High School,
469-713-5178, or leave a message for him at the police department at 972-625-8273.