The Role of Law Enforcement in School Threat Assessment: A Qualitative Study of Team Members’ Views

• In Event: Harm Reduction: Critical Issues in 'Theory vs Practice'

Abstract

Scholars have conducted numerous studies of law enforcement officers in school settings, as school police have become far more common over the last three decades. However, few studies have examined their role on school threat assessment teams or threat assessment team members’ perceptions of the role of law enforcement in the school threat assessment process. The current study utilizes in-depth interviews with threat assessment team members to explore their views of the role of school police within k-12 school threat assessment teams. Our findings reveal that while threat assessment professionals see law enforcement as crucial for gathering information and evaluating threats within multidisciplinary teams, they also express concerns about officers' lack of adherence to threat assessment training and their often-punitive mindset, which can have an outsized influence in the decision-making process.

Authors

• Eric Madfis, University of Washington Tacoma

• Jason R. Silva, William Paterson University

• Katie Callahan, University of Washington Tacoma