S.R.O.s (School Resource Officers) have been around for several decades starting in large cities in the north. MNPD (Metro Nashville Police Dept.) had a handful or officers in uniform on a temporary basis beginning in the fall of 1993. After a tragic accidental shooting event at a MNPS middle school in the spring of 1994 a total of eleven officers were assigned to MNPS schools in the fall of 1994. Now there are nearly 70 SRO’s in MNPS schools. There is one officer assigned to each middle school and usually two assigned to each high school. Middle school SROs have both traditional police responsibilities of working with the staff to provide and safe school environment as well as Community Policing responsibilities of connecting students and faculty with needed resources and thirdly instructional responsibilities. They facilitate the delivery of information and life skills to students to help them secure grounded decision making abilities to meet contemporary temptations and challenges they daily face.

MNPD middle school SROs primarily venue of instruction is through the G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education and Training) program. The fifth grade receives the GREAT Elementary six lesson program and the sixth grade receives the GREAT thirteen lesson middle school program. One of the main applications of the GREAT program comes in the form of a School Improvement Project where the students tangibly serve their school/community with a service project of their choosing and in doing so become a contributing members of the community. The ultimate goal of the project is for the students to take ownership of their community and seek to be an ongoing part of the solution to challenges that face their community locally and globally.

Please visit http://www.great-online.org to find out more information about the program.