Sheriff outlines SRO duties, training and master-key access as board discusses school safety

Sheriff Coffey told the Jefferson County Board of Education the main duty of School Resource Officers (SROs) is protection: to respond to and eliminate threats in school buildings, and that their visible presence at arrival and dismissal is crucial because those times have historically been high-risk.

"The main one is for protection of the students," Coffey said. "If there is a threat to that school or inside that school, they are there to eliminate that threat." He told the board that many SRO duties also include investigating, preplanning, perimeter checks and occasional teaching or prevention work.

Coffey outlined training expectations for SROs: all officers are required to complete baseline in-service hours, and SROs do additional training. He said county SROs routinely receive far more training than the statutory minimum: "Every officer is required to do [40 hours] and the SRO is required to do 16 hours on top of that training ... so actually they're what they're mandated to do about 56 hours. What we try to do is about a hundred, hundred and 140 hours training." He described situational training done in empty schools in summer, including realistic scenarios and the use of simulated weapons for realism.

Board members raised questions about role boundaries. One board member asked whether SROs should be directing traffic at carline, and Coffey replied that, based on incident data, arrival and dismissal are among the times when schools are most at risk. "About 40% of the shootings happened at the very beginning of school and at this dismissal," Coffey said, adding that SROs should be "seen, be present" at those times and that they should not be placed in positions where their uniform is used for nonessential duties.

Coffey thanked the board for approving countywide access arrangements and described master-key access and 9-1-1 center camera links as operational assets. "The decision that you all make to put a master key in the hands of every law enforcement officer in this county is unbelievable," he said, noting deputies, constables, highway patrol and city police carry keys and that the 9-1-1 center can access cameras to dispatch information.

School staff and board members also discussed SRO involvement in medical and behavioral incidents. District staff said schools average frequent ambulance responses and that the school has crisis-intervention teams that sometimes coordinate with SROs; Coffey and administrators said SRO involvement is situational and depends on whether a student threatens harm or the incident escalates rapidly. Coffey described occasions when SROs had to take students into custody when a situation escalated beyond school staff resources.

Teachers and board members sought clarity on who should respond to classroom medical events or student seizures; administrators said SROs are generally not the primary medical responders but may be part of a medical or emergency-response team when needed. The district said some incidents prompt 911 and EMS response and that the school operates teams trained in AED usage, stop-the-bleeding drills and medical response.

No formal policy or vote was taken. The discussion emphasized coordination: MOU language with the sheriff’s office, preplanning and training, and clearer role descriptions so staff know when to call SROs versus relying on school medical or crisis teams.

Why it matters: The SRO role and its precise scope affect student safety, staff responsibilities and how schools manage arrival/dismissal, medical incidents and escalating threats.

Next steps: Board members and administrators noted existing MOUs and agreed to continue coordination among principals, the sheriff’s office and district staff to reinforce role boundaries and training.