Backgrounder

Backgrounder – PEI RCMP School Resource Officer

September 3, 2025 - Montague, Prince Edward Island
From: Prince Edward Island RCMP

Content

SRO’s are assigned to a region of schools so that they are familiar with the region and each school’s unique context.

The officer serves as a liaison between school administrators and RCMP. They work closely with students, the schools, the school district and provide education, intervention and enforcement if required.

A diverse range of duties can be incorporated into the SRO job description but generally they include public safety and law-related education, relationship building and positive role modeling, community liaison, problem solving and law enforcement. Key outcomes that have been seen with School Resource Officers include:
- Strengthening relationships between police, community and particularly youth;
- Enhancing neighborhood safety by strengthening partnerships between and among police, schools and the community;
- Providing schools with more strategic crime prevention resources;
- Demonstrating effective, collaborative and proactive community-based crime prevention strategies; and
- Potential cost savings for justice, education and social service systems.

Key findings from the pilot project identified that having an officer within the Montague family of schools contributes to:
• Greater sense of safety and security for students and the school staff.
• Positive and supportive interactions with police, where students can build a stronger
relationship with the dedicated officer who has a physical presence at the schools. School administrators and student services also identified that they have a strong supportive relationship with the officer.
• Timely response to incidents and service calls by an officer who is familiar with the schools, students, and staff, and especially to MRHS.

PEI RCMP recognized several benefits including:
· Police can respond and resolve issues involving students more efficiently;
· Students’ familiarity with SRO’s enhances police credibility and resolution of issues;
· Parents utilize the SRO’s to report and resolve issues involving their children, which is more cost effective to have SRO’s resolve issues at the school rather than utilizing patrol officers; and
· Expanded community intelligence gathering abilities, community more responsive to SRO’s and willingness to share information.

Contacts