School resource officers handle incidents of drug and alcohol use among students, threats of violence and vandalism. The best of them also serve as mentors to students, offering words of caution and encouragement. But as a study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice noted, there “is concern that an increasing police presence at schools will ‘criminalize’ student behavior by moving problematic students to the juvenile justice system rather than disciplining them at school.”  Or, perhaps even worse, the students will find themselves with summary offense citations that stay on their records permanently, diminishing their future educational and career prospects.
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Source: LancasterOnline, April 15, 2019.