Chiefs,
Please see the request below from Montague Police Chief Jason Haskins, who is conducting doctoral research examining police involvement in Massachusetts public high schools and changes in School Resource Officer staffing between 2012 and 2024.
Chief Haskins is seeking participation from all departments, including those that have never assigned an SRO to a public high school. The survey takes approximately 3–5 minutes, and participation will help provide a more complete statewide picture of SRO staffing and police-school partnerships.
Please take a few minutes to review Chief Haskins’ request below and participate if possible. Your assistance in supporting this research is greatly appreciated.
Good morning, Chiefs,
My name is Jason Haskins, Chief of Police for the Montague Police Department, and I am a doctoral candidate in Criminal Justice and Criminology at Keiser University.
I am conducting dissertation research examining police involvement in Massachusetts public high schools between 2012 and 2024 and how school-level police staffing may have changed following the 2018 Massachusetts juvenile justice reform.
Your response is important whether or not your department has ever assigned a School Resource Officer (SRO). One goal of this research is to understand which schools had SROs, which did not, and how those patterns changed over time. If your department never assigned an SRO to a public high school, I still ask that you complete the survey.
Currently, no statewide database captures historical school-level SRO assignment information. Because of that, your participation is especially valuable.
The survey takes approximately 3–5 minutes for most agencies.
Important: If your department serves only one public high school, complete the information for that school and skip the remaining school sections. If your department serves two public high schools, complete the first two school sections and skip the rest. Only complete sections for schools your department serves.
For agencies serving multiple high schools, an Excel spreadsheet template is also attached and may be returned instead of completing the school-level survey questions.
If exact historical records are unavailable, estimated responses based on departmental records or institutional knowledge are welcome.
Survey Link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NVMGHNG
If using the spreadsheet option, completed templates may be emailed to:
Your participation will directly support research intended to better inform discussions regarding school safety, juvenile justice reform, and police-school partnerships in Massachusetts.
If another member of your department is better positioned to complete this request, please feel free to forward it to them.
I would greatly appreciate your response at your earliest convenience. I cannot begin my study until I receive this information, and as you can imagine, the doctoral program is very expensive.
Thank you for your time and assistance.
Chief Jason D. Haskins, MSCJA
Montague Police Department
Doctoral Candidate
Keiser University
180 Turnpike Road
Turners Falls, MA, 01376
413-863-8911 ext. 203