JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As students prepare to return to classrooms, more than 1,100 school resource officers from across Florida are gathering in Jacksonville for hands-on training focused on the challenges they could face on campus.
The Florida Association of School Resource Officers is holding its annual conference in Jacksonville for the first time since the 1990s, bringing officers together to practice skills they hope they never have to use.
The training comes as school safety continues to be a concern for families nationwide.
Those concerns have pushed schools and law enforcement agencies to continue evaluating how they prepare for potential threats — from emergency response training to adding new layers of security.
In Duval County, News4JAX recently showed how the district is expanding its gun-detection K-9 program ahead of the new school year. The K-9 program is another piece of a broader approach to school safety that also includes trained school resource officers.
At the FASRO conference, officers are participating in hands-on exercises focused on classroom response, communication under stress, team movement and other scenarios designed to prepare them for emergencies.
For Sgt. Thomas Williams, vice president of FASRO and a member of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, preparing for those moments is only one part of the job.
Williams says school resource officers spend much of their time building trust with students — relationships that can become just as important as the training itself.
“A lot of people have to understand that our resource officers put in that time and energy behind the scenes,” Williams said. “They never see the fact that we are also mentors; some of us are father figures or mother figures.”
During the conference, Williams shared a moment that showed him the lasting impact those relationships can have.
He said during a recent detail with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, he saw a former student from his time as a school resource officer at Nease High School. That student was now a seven-year veteran with JSO.
“The kid that shows up is a seven-year veteran at JSO,” Williams said. “I was his resource officer way back when at Nease, and you start to think, wow, this is cool. I haven’t seen this guy in like 10 years.”
For Williams, seeing former students grow into adults is what makes the responsibility of the job personal.
“You get to the emotional side because these kids are your family,” Williams said.
He says the connection between officers and students is built through everyday interactions, conversations in hallways, guidance when students need it and simply being a consistent presence on campus.
“You see the difference because it’s not just you, it’s your kids, right? These kids are everything to us,” Williams said. “We come into this job to save people, to help people out, and that’s the biggest thing that we are here for.”
Williams says those relationships are often what students remember most, even years after they leave school.
The annual FASRO conference continues through Friday, with officers expected to take the training and lessons learned in Jacksonville back to schools and agencies across Florida.