Douglas County Sheriff’s Office seeks school resource officers for schools

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is recruiting Colorado POST-certified laterals with patrol experience for school resource officer posts as the county tries to keep trained deputies in classrooms across Douglas County. The office says its SROs are specially trained to work in the school environment, and county materials describe the program as the largest school resource officer team in Colorado.

The staffing picture is not simple. A Douglas County Sheriff’s Office social media post said 43 deputies serve in county schools and that the number would soon rise to 47. A separate county update said the School Resource Officer cost-share covers 57 schools with 37 deputies. Together, those figures show the county counting school coverage in more than one way, while still signaling a need to keep filling posts before the school year settles in.

Douglas County School District also maintains a School Resource Officer Program and a Partnership for Safety framework with the sheriff’s office. That structure makes the hiring push more than a routine staffing notice: the county relies on SROs not only for emergency response and visible security, but also for mentoring students inside schools from Castle Rock to the district’s far-flung campuses.

The job listing tied to the effort seeks lateral applicants who are Colorado POST-certified law enforcement officers with School Resource Officer experience and Basic NASRO certification. That narrows the pool to deputies who already have patrol backgrounds and specific school-policing training, underscoring that the county wants officers who can move into the role quickly rather than build them from scratch.

The renewed hiring attention comes after a 2023 settlement in a lawsuit involving Douglas County School District, the sheriff’s office and several SROs. Under the agreement, the district revised policies to improve safety for students with disabilities and required more training for staff and school resource officers on how to interact with children with disabilities.

Sheriff Darren Weekly has repeatedly highlighted the mentoring side of the program on county channels, while the department has used National School Resource Officer Day to celebrate its school deputies. At the same time, the broader debate in Colorado has kept school policing under a microscope, with many 2024 school board candidates backing more SROs and others pressing for more mental health services. In Douglas County, the hiring drive lands in the middle of that debate, with parents and students watching whether the county can staff its schools with officers trained for both safety and daily school life.