Positive Police Presence in Elementary Schools: A Scoping Review

Police presence has increased in schools; however, little is known about the effects of positive police presence on academic or social-emotional outcomes in elementary students, even though their role often includes education and mentorship in addition to law enforcement. Results found that this is a recent area of interest with all articles published in 2019 or later and limited to studies conducted in the United States. Included studies provided limited demographic detail. Related to the specific areas of focus, no studies examined academic outcomes; social-emotional outcomes focused on feelings of safety or student empowerment; there were mixed findings on perceptions of safety; and relationships required intentional work. Over half of the studies included data from across grade levels, making it difficult to isolate findings specific to elementary students. Continued work in this area is necessary to fully understand the positive impact of police presence in elementary schools.