Littleton Looks to Restore School Resource Officer Position After 20 Year Hiatus

LITTLETON — After nearly two decades without a school resource officer (SRO), the Littleton School District and police department are looking to revive the position, contingent on the awarding of federal grant funding. Much has changed in the past 20 years, including the involvement of the state, all SROs now having to go through an accreditation program and mandated training, a required memorandum of understanding regarding how SROs will operate within the school district, and oversight from the police department, all making for “a lot of things that never existed in the past when that position first came up,” Littleton Police Chief Paul Smith said in his presentation to the school board on Monday. Smith is seeking the funding through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) grant program.