Sioux County, Iowa — A partnership between several Sioux County schools and the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office is marking an anniversary.
The start of the school year marks the ninth year of the Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officer or “SRO” program. Deputy Waylon Pollema is the Sheriff’s Office SRO, and he tells us about the program. He says the last thing he wants to do is catch kids getting into trouble. He says that’s not the goal of the program.
Pollema tells us about the schools where he has a presence.
He says that even schools at which they don’t have an SRO agreement will frequently call him to have him do presentations at their school.
Pollema tells us that when the program got started it was just one of his duties. But as the years have continued and more and more schools have been added, the SRO program keeps him pretty busy, and he spends most of his time in the schools.
Deputy Pollema continues to receive yearly training from the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), where he has reached the level of a practitioner. Deputy Pollema also receives yearly training from the Iowa Association of School Resource Officers (IASRO), where he is currently the President of the Board of Directors.
Pollema says people seem to have a very positive impression of the program.
The SRO program was instigated when the sheriff’s office saw an increase in mass school shootings nationwide. Sheriff Dan Altena says that even though SRO programs had been primarily associated with larger metropolitan city schools, they believed there was something they could and should do for Sioux County schools to provide safety and security.
