Two Rivers School Resource Officers
The Two Rivers Public School District has three SROs: Officer Matt Lutze, Officer Briana Propson, and Officer Amanda Verhelst, who serve our four schools.
Together, we have a presence in all of the public schools in the City of Two Rivers. SROs (formerly called police school liaison officers/ PSLOs) have many functions in their positions.
The definition of an SRO is a law enforcement officer, with sworn authority, assigned by the employing police department to work in collaboration with schools and community-based organizations. So, we are sworn law enforcement officers employed by the Two Rivers Police Department who were selected by the Police Department and School District to become SROs for the district. We have additional training specific to the school environment so that we can better serve the schools, students, parents, and staff. The school becomes our “beat”. At the schools we work closely with administration and are a visible, active law enforcement figure, a classroom resource, a community resource, and a member of the faculty. We have a genuine interest in working with youth and a shared interest in maintaining a safe school environment.
You can think of our position as a triad concept between the school, the community, and the police department. Also within the school we have another triad of our job; law enforcement officer, teacher, counselor/mentor. The responsibilities of SROs are similar to regular police officers in that they have the ability to make arrests, respond to calls for service, and document incidents that occur within their jurisdiction. School resource officers typically have additional duties to include mentoring and conducting presentations on youth-related issues such as internet safety, stranger danger, harassment, sex offenses, drugs and alcohol, the role of law enforcement, etc.
School resource officers play an integral role in the public school system and also have had many positive impacts on the students that they are involved with. We don’t just arrest people and deal with problems, we are here to help students, staff, and parents to answer questions, provide guidance, refer to appropriate resources, etc and be an available, visible resource. We get to know the students and families within the district so we can better serve them. The School Resource Officer program has been an important part of the Two Rivers Police Department since 1983. In 1988 the SRO program took an added responsibility when they added the D.A.R.E.(Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program which is taught to 5th grade students. In 2003 they added the 6th grade to the D.A.R.E. program. In 2008 the 6th grade was switched to 7th grade. We also do many other things within the schools, to find out more, visit each Officer’s page.
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