Police Department - School Resource Unit
West Chester Township is a part of a large and very active school environment. The School Resource Officer program involves assigning carefully selected and trained police officers to work directly with the Lakota Public School District in cooperation with school administrators and faculty.
The program is designed to establish a more complete liaison with school personnel and students in a cooperative effort to prevent juvenile delinquency. School Resource Officers are uniformed officers who work within the schools to enforce Ohio's laws regarding unruly or delinquent juveniles. They investigate juvenile crime as it may occur and attempt to identify and eliminate juvenile delinquency causative factors through a number of set program objectives.
This position is jointly funded by Lakota Schools and West Chester Police.
Some program objectives are:
- To help build a positive image toward orderly behavior
- To help students learn more about the law
- To familiarize students with law enforcement personnel and their objectives and role in society
- To reinforce a sense of school pride
- To encourage students to stay in school
- To provide safety education
- To protect students, staff, and school property
