School Resource Officers - An End of a Career Job

[MineralMan]

The cop who stayed outside of the building was a School Resource Officer. He used to be a regular cop, I'm sure, but he was getting older and slower and not quite as sharp as the younger guys. He was getting close to his retirement date. So, he got himself transferred to become a School Resource Officer. It's a pretty common thing, really. SROs get to be Officer Friendly at a school and give talks and let kids take selfies with them. Yes, they're still cops, but they're not really doing police work so much any more, and that's just fine with them.

So, Officer Friendly was on duty when some weird kid brought his AR-15 to the school that expelled him for being a weird kid. He went in, shot up a few classrooms, then dropped his weapon and ran away with the other kids who were running away, leaving a trail of dead people behind him. Officer Friendly heard the gunshots and pretty much froze.

He was on short time. His retirement was almost there. Gunshots? No thanks! So, he stood outside and waited for backup. He wasn't going to die that day. Not a chance. A coward? Yeah, OK. Still alive? You bet he is. Now, he'll move somewhere else in Florida, move into a condo and live until that heart attack drops him in his tracks.

Could he have stopped what happened? Probably not. By the time he got to where the shooter was, the shooter would probably have already dropped his AR-15 and was making his escape. It's a sad deal for Officer Friendly. It's not the end of his time as a cop he anticipated. He's alive, though. Maybe that's enough for him to forget it happened. Maybe.

[atreides1]

1. He was outside of the building for 4 minutes

The video shows that Peterson remained outside the building for upward of four minutes during the shooting, which lasted about six minutes, Israel said. Aside from getting "on his radio," Peterson did "nothing" while standing outside the building, Israel said.

He also was trained:

The personnel file on Peterson shows he completed multiple training programs as well, including a mandatory firearms training program and special tactical problems training program.


He still might have prevented some of the casualties, but not all, but some is better then none!

[MineralMan]

3. Yeah. It was a tough situation. The guy made his decision.

Or he simply froze. The lack of radio calls makes me think that may have been the situation. He'll have to live with it. I wouldn't want to be him, frankly. But I won't ever be in his shoes.

[samnsara]

2. it would be enough for me if he was my family member..there was enough killing that day and..

..his little pop pistol would have only got him killed.

[MichMary]

29. You think

you would forgive and forget? The guy stood outside WITH A GUN, while inside, a murderer was blowing away your kid?

I would expect that someone who was a professional law enforcement officer, and armed, to do anything possible to stop the carnage.

[malaise]

4. Well said

He's alive - he didn't kill anyone - ban the fucking weapon of war. That's why so many are dead.

[MineralMan]

6. I'm really not judging either way.

I'm just trying to explain what might have happened. I'll never be in that situation. Thank goodness for that.

I won't make any judgment, frankly.

Thanks. I just wanted to present a different look at the situation.

[B2G]

5. That needs to change then.

Put prime officers in place and arm them correctly to deal with the threat. End of story.

[MineralMan]

7. Perhaps. I don't know. Most SROs never encounter anything

more serious than a kid with a little baggie of weed, really. I'm not sure that putting prime officers in SRO positions makes all that much sense, either. The odds of a particular school being attacked by a shooter are very small. There's no good answer, actually, to the problem. There really isn't.

Except - Take the damned weapons out of the picture. That would work. That's what I suggest. Make those assault weapons go away. Make all firearms a lot harder to obtain. I think that's the answer we should be looking at. The rest? Meh...

[B2G]

10. No one solution will fix it all.

It needs to be multi-pronged.

You could ban AR15s tomorrow, and they'll still be attainable to people who really want to get ahold of them. You know this.

[MineralMan]

14. I know a lot of things. I also know about probabilities and odds.

Making firearms a lot harder to own would go a long way with this sort of situation. Really it would. There's no way to create a totally safe world. There are always situations that are not predictable. School shootings, though, are predictable and are becoming more frequent.

The single common denominator in them is the weapons used. That's where I'd start to reduce the probabilities and improve the odds of having safe schools.

Deal with the instruments of death. We'll always have people who are dangerous. Remove the capability to kill many quickly, and the problem will diminish.

Slogans aren't the answer. Only action will help, and we need to start with the weapons that are used in such tragedies. I'm certain of that. If we don't, we'll just keep seeing these events occur. Mark my words: There will be another major school shooting within a week or two. It's just too tempting to some person who wants to go out in a big way.

[B2G]

23. Whatever happened to walking and chewing gum at the same time?

Multiple things can be pursued in tandem. That's all I'm saying. Nice chatting with you.

[MichMary]

32. So, why arm them?

They certainly aren't going to blow away a kid for a little baggie of weed. At least, I hope not!

If they aren't going to be capable of doing anything useful when needed, then take their guns away, since it probably leads to a false sense of security, as in, "Hey, Officer Friendly and his Friendly Gun are going to protect us. You know, if the school authorities, FBI, local law enforcement, CPS, and everyone else falls down on the job."

[cynatnite]

8. I hope he never forgets that kids and teachers did his job for him...

Read the survivor's stories. A 15-year-old boy was shot five times holding a door closed so he could protect his fellow students.

Sorry, this asshole should have to live with his inaction for the rest of his life.

[MineralMan]

9. I'd think it's very unlikely that he'll forget anything.

Think about it. He'll remember. I would not care to be in his shoes. I would not have wanted to be in his shoes that day, either.

I'm not in that kind of work. I never wanted to be a cop.

But, he'll remember, as long as he lives.

[bluestarone]

20. this 100%

I'd like to add that our kids in school deserve the BEST POSSIBLE DEFENSE!! I mean if the decision is made with 2 day notice of something bad Then why put all this on ONE person close to retiring? There should have been MANY DEFENDERS!!! Just saying

[Aristus]

11. If nothing else, he's a living, breathing example of how idiotic is the notion that

'a good guy with a gun can take out a bad guy with a gun.'

[Lee-Lee]

12. Using SRO slots to send officers out to pasture is bad policy

It isn’t the case in all areas. It shouldn’t be in any areas.

An SRO should be 100% the same in capability and ability as anyone else.

If an officer isn’t capable of the job, then they are not capable at any level.

This guy evidently was an SRO for 20+ years, so it wasn’t a recent move. But I question of being an SRO for that long may have changed his mindset and temperament away from being that sheepdog he needed to be.

[B2G]

13. Exactly.

It really seems like everything about this was a tragic comedy of errors. From the FBI failing to take action on numerous tips to local law enforcement's complete inaction, to the SRO doing nothing.

It's unreal.

[Lee-Lee]

17. And it seems to be getting worse

I just heard a blurb that the same SRO refused to cooperate with CPS when they were investigating him and that he was told about threats when he was still a student and there is no record he followed up on themS

[MichMary]

34. Yikes!

If true, then that makes him directly culpable. At least, IMHO.

[MineralMan]

16. There are many mistakes that combined to allow that shooting to occur.

Fixing one of them isn't going to eliminate them. It's simply not. We're not looking properly at it.

There is one common denominator in all of these mass shootings. That's the thing we need to change. Nothing else will do it.

[MichMary]

36. Which common denominator is that?

The VA Tech shooter used a handgun to blow away 30+ people. The Columbine shooters had a variety of weapons, all obtained illegally. This guy was (for some reason!) able to legally obtain an AR15.

Other than all being firearms, I'm not seeing a common denominator.

[snowybirdie]

15. Since the initiation

of SWAT teams, police are accustomed to waiting til the big guns arrive. Probably why he held back. A hard call for anyone.

[MineralMan]

18. Remember Columbine? Remember how long it took before

any real action was taken. Sadly, we're still learning what to do and not to do.

Get rid of the guns. That will simplify things a great deal. It will.

[MichMary]

37. All guns?

How do you propose to do that?

[Mariana]

39. I remember how the number one priority of the cops at Columbine

was to "minimize police casualties". Meanwhile, people were slowly bleeding to death inside. Some of them might have been saved if the dozens of police officers at the scene hadn't cowered outside for so long.

This was very different.

[Hoyt]

19. Pretty much agree. And a whole Las Vegas SWAT team waited an hour before going in killer's hotel

room.

I'd like to hear Officer Friendly's side of the story. For sure, he's being scapegoated by all those who are to blame for not acting long ago to get Cruz help-- FBI, local police, the kid's adoptive gunner dad who was fine with his guns, the lawmakers who made it easy on Cruz and every other gunner, the NRA, other gunners who have encourage production of these weapons, etc.

Officer Friendly may be the most innocent of the bunch.

[MineralMan]

21. I don't know. I do know that he's in a very bad place right now.

There's no criminal liability for him. If he can live through this without doing something self-destructive, I suppose he'll manage somehow. I sure don't want to see him as the primary scapegoat. That's not right.

Guns. We're looking at everything but the guns. Until we stop doing that, we're going to have more of these senseless tragedies.

Of that I'm very certain.

[MichMary]

38. I think

that we are looking at everything, including guns.

And there was failure all along the way. It is probably easier to deal with the other things--like the failures of the FBI, CPS, school authorities--than it is with a Constitutionally guaranteed right to own guns.

The kid was troubled from the get-go. He never should have had a gun and everyone who could have prevented it, failed. His own mother, his foster family, law enforcement, the list goes on and on. Taking the gun away from him, which was possible under current laws, would have prevented it. So--hold those agencies to account. Enforce existing laws.

[snowybirdie]

22. Social services failed early on

But Florida's record on adolescent mental health is abysmal. As long as this kid smiled and was complacent with investagors, they didn't place him in a mental health facility.

[lunasun]

24. Honor never grows old and honor rejoices the heart of age

He maybe should have thought about that assignment and possibilities before putting on the badge and gun. 25% of mass shootings are at schools

As you say maybe it just was not worth it to him.

Honorable adults and teens did save some young lives that day and sacrificed thier own lives even though it probably was never the intention to be a defender when choosing a career or to go to class.

I'd rather see more posts about them or AWB than all the ones defending this guy.
Even district LEOs including the Sheriff are not doing that

Israel added: “I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in.”

Since the Columbine school shooting that left 12 dead in 1999, cops have been trained not to wait for heavily armed SWAT officers but to enter buildings to find and kill the threat.

“When we train police, the first priority is to stop the killing,” said Pete Blair, the executive director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University.

Said former Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti: “These events are over in three to five minutes. You don’t have the luxury to wait. You might not have the best equipment, you might have small numbers, but you’re armed. Those kids are not armed. You have to go in and engage the shooter. Our job is to protect and serve.”

[former9thward]

25. A generalization at best.

The SRO at the high school nearest to me is barely older than the students.

[lame54]

26. I hope he lives long enough to have a heart attack...

if the pressure keeps building he may off himself raising the casualty # to 18

[MichMary]

27. He'll never forget it

And he shouldn't.

That 4-minute period of time defines him, as a professional LEO and as a person. He was a massive failure.

if I were the parent of one of the dead kids, I would be so angry. Everyone failed these kids. There is a lot of blame to go around in this case, but he was, without question, the last line of defense.

[mcar]

28. Not always

Many, if not most, of the SROs in our county school district are younger deputies. The do drug awareness and driver safety programs along with security and are present at most sporting events. Sometimes they coach, too.

IIRC, the idea was to have LEOs who could relate to the students and to whom the students could relate.

[ProudLib72]

30. Officer Friendly is merely a distraction

So you want to talk about gun control? SQUIRREL!

You want to talk about all those who died that day? SQUIRREL!

You don't think that teachers need to be armed? SQUIRREL!

Officer Friendly was low down enough on the totem pole but still in a position of authority that he makes a good distraction/scapegoat/excuse when the talk gets too heated.

My advice, don't let them interject "SQUIRREL" into the narrative. Just don't allow it. Ignore the temptation and concentrate on getting real answers instead of distractions/scapegoats/excuses.

[Meowmee]

31. I dont blame him

He had no chance to fight someone with an ar 15 with a pistol or whatever he had- it would’ve been suicide, calling for back up was the right thing to do. The previous ban on assault weapons reduced deaths and gun violence, we need to ban these weapons imo and crack down on illegal sales etc. as well as do many other things which may help.

[Cosmocat]

33. That seems to be the case here

It isn't in our district - the SRO is a combined district/borough position (for salary and supervision) but was hired by and is a borough officer.

The rotate them into the spot every few years for professional development.

I would imagine it differs from district to district.

[pintobean]

35. The ones I've seen have all been in their 30s

A couple in their early 40s. Peterson had been the resource officer at Douglas High School since 2009.

And, I'd bet self inflicted lead poisoning before heart attack.