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" (SRO). This concept is not new. It has been around for years.

In The Colony, we have 7 SRO positions and one SRO Supervisor.  One has been assigned to The Colony High School since 1993 and was the first in Lewisville Independent School District. Presently, TCHS has two SRO's. There is an SRO assigned to each of the two middle schools in The Colony . TCPD has one  who is responsible for the elementary Schools. Their is one assigned to the Prestwick STEM Academy and one assigned to Strike Middle School located on Lebanon Rd. the SRO's mission is to serve as a liaison between the students, teachers, administration and the Police Department. 

Responsibilities

The SRO's job is multi-faceted. Yes, the SRO will arrest students when they have committed a criminal act, but that is not the main role of the SRO. The SRO must maintain an image that will reflect a positive influence toward everyone - especially the students. The SRO 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 SRO have positive contact with people at school.

The positive contact is achieved by interacting primarily with students, but also with teachers. The SRO teaches classes on the dangers of drugs, alcohol, tobacco / vaping, violence prevention, bulling and other issues facing society. The SRO will talk with the teachers and staff and help resolve legal issues facing the teacher-student relationship. The SRO will take reports when a crime has occurred on campus. The best way to describe the SRO is that they are 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.

Local Officers

The Colony High School SROs are Officer Omar Montemayor, and Officer Kelly Nichols. The SRO assigned to Griffin Middle School is Officer Mike Rice.  The SRO assigned to Lakeview Middle School is Officer JD Simmons.  The SRO Officer who is assigned to all of the Elementary Schools (BB Owen Elementary, Morningside Elementary, Peters Colony Elementary, Camay Elementary, Stewart’s Creek Elementary and Ethridge Elementary) is Officer Dillion Elvington. The SRO at the Prestwick STEM Academy is Officer JP Alexander and the Officer assigned to Strike Middle School is Officer Karla Diaz.  All SROs are assigned to The Criminal Investigation Division and receives the same training as a Detective. SRO’s are responsible for the entire investigation of all offenses that occur on their respective campuses, beginning to end, and most offenses involving juveniles that may occur off campus and after hours. The SRO works along with other criminal investigators during any down time they may have, and during the summer months.

For more information regarding the School Resource Officer program, please feel free to contact  any of our SRO's.