Siloam Springs Schools have highest ratio of resource officers in the region

Siloam Springs has the highest ratio of school resource officers to school buildings in Northwest Arkansas, according to lead officer Corporal Jeff Bland.

Bland reported during the March 8 school board meeting that the Siloam Springs School District has five SROs for seven school buildings, giving the district an overall ratio of 1.4 buildings for every officer. The second lowest district is Springdale with 1.6 buildings for every officer.

“It’s a responsibility that none of us take lightly,” Bland said. “I can tell you that we want to be here and we want to do the best job we can. We are very fortunate

here in Siloam Springs to have five school resource officers for a city of our size.”

Bland said he appreciate’s the district and the city’s commitment to safety. By having an officer in each building, SROs can build relationships with students and staff members, and provide a visible presence.

Building strong relationships with school staff members and students on a day-to-day basis is key to preventing problems, Bland said.

When behavioral problems arise, SROs try to find the root of the issue before it rises to the level of criminal charges. That allows officers to act more as counselors or mentors to students and educate them on consequences of bad behavior, he said.

“The approach we take, and the administrators of the schools take, is not coming in as an adversary, not as an officer that’s coming in to arrest or order, but to try to understand what’s going on, listen to them, be there to be a problem solver for them, for perpetrators and victims alike,” he said.

Visibility is also important to deterring threats both inside and outside of the schools, Bland said. The police department makes a point of having marked vehicles parked in a highly visible place outside of school buildings, and having a uniformed officer in visible locations inside the school.

“We try to focus on being in the cafeteria during lunch, before school, (we try to) be in areas where all the students are congregating to make sure students see us and we maintain visibility both for inside and outside threats,” he said. “If someone pulls in the parking lot and sees a marked unit out front, we hope that is a deterrent. Students inside the schools know there are officers around. They know we are going to be responding really quickly to anything going on to deter anything going on.”

The resource officers work with school staff members to make sure safety measures are in place, Bland said. The officers conduct weekly safety checks of each building. They also help train school staff members how to respond to an active shooter.

The district’s active shooter response plan is both simple and complex, Bland said.

The district has a panic button phone app that allows school staff members to alert emergency personnel of emergencies without having to call 911.

School staff members are trained not to be passive victims, but instead to escape, hide, barricade or deny entry.

“In Siloam, we are sold on solo officer response,” Bland said. “We’re not going to wait for additional units to arrive or anything like that.”

He explained that most school shooters are inexperienced rather than well trained, and will stop as soon as they meet resistance.

“We are going in to find the threat and neutralize it as fast as we can,” he said.

“We appreciate what you do, I guess now more than ever,” said school board president Brian Lamb, referring to recent school shootings. “I used to think it was just good having you in there for the relationships with kids and unfortunately now it’s turned the other way for the protection of the kids, the teachers and the staff.”