School Resource Officers

The Hillsboro School District has a long-standing partnership with the Hillsboro Police Department (HPD) and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office through our School Resource Officer (SRO) Program. We currently have seven HPD SROs and one overseeing sergeant serving schools within Hillsboro’s city limits, and one Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy serving our schools in unincorporated areas.

The SRO program began back in the late 1990s as a result of collaboration between then-Hillsboro Police Chief Ron Louie and HSD Deputy Superintendent Carlos Perez. The idea was to have dedicated officers serving our schools who could develop relationships and provide more effective support to students, staff, and families. 

In the 2020-21 school year, as the District and our law enforcement partners embarked upon a new intergovernmental agreement (IGA), we took the opportunity to dive deeply into student, staff, and community perceptions of our SRO program, what was and was not working well, and what changes should be made for the future. Some key takeaways from the surveys and focus groups conducted through that process were better defining the desired role and activities of SROs:

• Fostering a positive school climate
• Education
• Law enforcement and crime prevention
• Participation in HSD-provided professional development
• Data collection and reporting
• Officer/deputy recruitment and selection