{"id":1031,"date":"2020-09-02T06:30:32","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T06:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2026-04-15T15:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:59:23","slug":"research-report-the-expanding-presence-of-law-enforcement-in-florida-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/2020\/09\/02\/research-report-the-expanding-presence-of-law-enforcement-in-florida-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Report: The Expanding Presence of Law Enforcement in Florida Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Expanding Presence of Law Enforcement in Florida Schools<\/p>\n

F. Chris Curran, PhD
\n<\/em>UF Education Policy Resear<\/em>ch Center Policy R<\/em>esearch Report
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"expanding<\/a>The presence of law enforcement in public schools has been a common security practice in the\u00a0state of Florida for several decades. Following the tragic 2018 school shooting in Parkland, FL, the state passed a law requiring all public schools to either have law enforcement or other armed personnel present. Drawing on state-wide data for the school years 2014-15 through 2018-19, this report examined the relationship between law enforcement in schools and a number of outcomes including reports of behavioral incidents to the state, incidents reported to law enforcement, school arrests, and exclusionary discipline. This analysis used statistical techniques that controlled for both observable characteristics of districts and schools as well as unobserved characteristics that were fixed over time. Findings suggest that the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act significantly increased the presence of law enforcement in schools, particularly in elementary schools. The presence of law enforcement in schools was related to increases in the number of behavioral incidents reported to the state, the number of such incidents reported to law enforcement, and student arrests. The results suggest a need to reconsider whether law enforcement should be present in schools, and, if they are, how they can be implemented in a way that minimizes unnecessary exposure of students to law enforcement and arrests.<\/p>\n

Research Report – The Expanding Presence of Law Enforcement in Florida Schools<\/a><\/p>\n

This research report is featured in a broader report on school policing featured by the ACLU of Florida.\u00a0 The Cost of School Policing can be found at:
\nwww.aclufl.org\/TheCostofSchoolPolicing<\/a>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The presence of law enforcement in public schools has been a common security practice in the\u00a0state of Florida for several decades. Following the tragic 2018 school shooting in Parkland, FL, the state passed a law requiring all public schools to either have law enforcement or other armed personnel present. Drawing on state-wide data for the school years 2014-15 through 2018-19, this report examined the relationship between law enforcement in schools and a number of outcomes including reports of behavioral incidents to the state, incidents reported to law enforcement, school arrests, and exclusionary discipline. This analysis used statistical techniques that controlled for both observable characteristics of districts and schools as well as unobserved characteristics that were fixed over time. Findings suggest that the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act significantly increased the presence of law enforcement in schools, particularly in elementary schools. The presence of law enforcement in schools was related to increases in the number of behavioral incidents reported to the state, the number of such incidents reported to law enforcement, and student arrests. The results suggest a need to reconsider whether law enforcement should be present in schools, and, if they are, how they can be implemented in a way that minimizes unnecessary exposure of students to law enforcement and arrests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"yoast_head":"\nResearch Report: The Expanding Presence of Law Enforcement in Florida Schools - Education Policy Research Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/eprc\/2020\/09\/02\/research-report-the-expanding-presence-of-law-enforcement-in-florida-schools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research Report: The Expanding Presence of Law Enforcement in Florida Schools - Education Policy Research Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The presence of law enforcement in public schools has been a common security practice in the\u00a0state of Florida for several decades. Following the tragic 2018 school shooting in Parkland, FL, the state passed a law requiring all public schools to either have law enforcement or other armed personnel present. Drawing on state-wide data for the school years 2014-15 through 2018-19, this report examined the relationship between law enforcement in schools and a number of outcomes including reports of behavioral incidents to the state, incidents reported to law enforcement, school arrests, and exclusionary discipline. This analysis used statistical techniques that controlled for both observable characteristics of districts and schools as well as unobserved characteristics that were fixed over time. Findings suggest that the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act significantly increased the presence of law enforcement in schools, particularly in elementary schools. 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