Ottawa’s police department is supplying three school resource officers. Police Chief Brent Roalson says there wasn’t much for them to do in the schools during the pandemic shutdown.
Those shutdowns also happened while some big city schools cut back on the number of school resource officers. Roalson says Ottawa doesn’t have the pressures and strained relationships with police that those cities do.
Such programs were started, in part, because children often get unflattering ideas about police from TV, movies, and sometimes their own parents who get in trouble. Having them meet real police officers is meant to overcome that.