District Police are responsible for the following functions:
- Providing police services to the district.
- Administering district-wide School Resource Officer (SRO) agreements.
- Partnering with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to ensure school safety.
- Managing specialized school security programming.
- District-wide oversight of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act compliance.
- District-wide oversight of Clery Act compliance.
- Coordination and oversite of the Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool (FSSAT) assessments.
- Coordination and oversite of the District Threat Assessment Team (DTAT) and the Schools Threat Assessment Teams (STAT).
- Conducting security-related assessments.
- Coordinating security for school activities, district meetings, and special events.
- Maintains police and public safety communications Center.
The jurisdiction of OCPS District Police is all territory within the geographical boundaries of the District. This includes property, real and personal, that is owned, leased, rented b,y or otherwise under the District's control. See District Policy ECG on the school board policies website for additional information.
Protective Services is responsible for the following functions:
- Providing uniformed security services to the district.
- Providing district-wide 24-hour preventative patrols and alarm response to schools and facilities.
- Providing security services and ID check points at select locations.
- Ensures compliance regarding protocols concerning safety and security issues and events.
- Providing for the security of staff and students in schools.
SRO roles and responsibilities:
An SRO's main function on the school campus, as articulated in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, is to be a uniformed, armed presence on the school campus. Additional roles and responsibilities of SROs are as follows:
- Providing uniformed security services to the district.
- SROs assigned to a school may, by mutual agreement, teach programs to the students. Any curriculum the SRO teaches should be an approved program or be submitted to the OCPS District Police for approval.
- SROs engage in individual and small group discussion with students, faculty and parents about matters related to law enforcement.
- SROs make referrals to community agencies offering assistance to juveniles and their families, such as mental health clinics, drug treatment centers, etc. when the officer deems appropriate.
- SROs assist other law enforcement officers in matters relating to the SRO school assignments.
- SROs will be a uniformed presence while the OCPS Police conduct their safety screening program. The safety screening is solely the responsibility of OCPS.
- SROs shall be visible in student populated areas before school, during class change, at lunch, and during dismissal when not involved in other Law Enforcement duties. SROs shall patrol the perimeter and external portion of the school when the SROs schedule permits.
- SROs are notified of criminal violations that occur on campus. Criminal investigations may take place concurrent to a student discipline issue, but the SROs are not involved with the discipline process. Additionally, SROs often defer minor criminal offenses to student discipline with no criminal charges being filed against the student.