Nearly 21K students labelled ‘offenders’ in one decade of EPS school resource officer program

Edmonton police school resource officers laid more than 2,000 charges and labelled nearly 21,000 students as offenders across 10 years.

That’s according to data obtained on the police’s School Resource Officer (SRO) program, which has been suspended in some schools across the city.

A team compiled the data from 2011 to 2020 to determine how exactly the program was used in Edmonton schools and its impact.

“There’s a heavy emphasis on the punitive aspect,” said Bashir Mohamed, who was part of the team combing through mountains of information.

“What we need to start understanding, especially in the last few years with the discourse around policing and race, is that we need to interpret discipline differently.”

The SRO program began in 1979 to create a police presence inside some Edmonton schools. EPS say the goal of the program was to keep schools safe for students and staff by “balancing enforcement with prevention and intervention.”

Police say the presence of SROs in schools helps prevent “bullying, graffiti and vandalism, harassment or stalking, robbery or theft, or use of weapons or threats.”

EPSB suspend program two years ago

The SRO program was suspended by Edmonton Public Schools (EPSB) in 2020. In an email statement, the school board told CityNews the program remains suspended pending a final report expected in November.

The Edmonton Catholic School Division still uses the program but did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Edmonton police clarified the term “offender,” specifying it doesn’t necessarily mean a student is charged with a criminal offence, but rather someone who has committed an offence or contravened provincial statutes.

“The EPS will continue to work closely with the Edmonton Catholic School Division (ECSD) staff, administration, counsellors and students through the SRO program. This will help ensure a safe learning environment for everyone, which includes a balanced approach between enforcement, education, prevention and intervention,” reads the EPS statement.

Councillor says more information needed

Edmonton city councillor and former EPSB trustee Michael Janz says the findings show why the school board chose to suspend the program. The councillor for Ward Papastew also believes it highlights the need for more details on who the program is impacting.

“It highlights that we not only more data, but more race-based data,” said Janz. “How many of those kids were First Nation, how many of those kids were Inuit, how many of those kids were of African heritage? We need to get to the bottom of those sorts of things.”

Janz believes Edmonton school districts should follow the lead of other provinces in choosing counselling over cops.

“You don’t require a highly paid, highly skilled weaponized police officer to do that,” he said. “You require a counsellor, peer coach, or knowledge keeper. These are the kinds of models we should be going towards.”

In terms of compiling the data for the report, Mohamed says there were serious issues in obtaining the necessary documents through freedom of information requests. He says the entire process has raised questions around police transparency.

“The fact that this program has existed since 1979 and these numbers weren’t being given out, to me is a scandal,” he said.