Sheriff Chapman continues to support expanding SRO into public elementary schools

Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman reiterated his support for a comprehensive proposal to expand School Resource Officers into Loudoun’s public elementary schools over the next four years, beginning with the FY27 county budget. SRO funding is expected to be part of the proposed budget that will be announced this week.

Chapman’s remarks were made in response to questions at a budget meeting of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 9, where the proposed Loudoun County Public Schools budget was discussed. Funding for SROs in middle and high schools is paid for exclusively through the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office budget, not the LCPS budget, and this would continue for elementary schools.

“Highly trained SROs in our elementary schools are essential to keeping Loudoun safe,” Chapman said. “Loudoun already has unarmed school security staff working closely with armed and highly trained SROs in middle and high schools, and it is time to extend this same protection to students, teachers and administrators in our elementary schools.” 

Nationally, shooting at elementary schools are up 1071% in the past decade—most of that in the past three years—and they now account for more than 25% of all school shootings. Middle school incidents are up much less, and most of those schools have SROs.

Locally, LCSO deputies responded to more than 4,000 school-related calls for service in the 2024-25 academic year, including more than 1,500 at elementary schools where no SRO is present. About 29% of Virginia’s public elementary schools have an SRO presence, so Loudoun would be joining this critical approach to public safety. 

If funding is approved by the Board of Supervisors, the LCSO would coordinate implementation with Loudoun County Public Schools and other stakeholders. The LCSO is hopeful that the Town of Leesburg will participate as well. 

The LCSO’s proposal calls for adding SRO deputies to each elementary school over the next four years—about 15 per year using a clustering approach to cover approximately 62 schools.

The SRO deputies would serve as protectors, mentors, and educators, complementing existing LCPS security personnel and building on the partnership and trust already in place through the elementary school D.A.R.E. program. 

The LCSO estimates about $6.7 million in FY27 costs for first-year start-up and recurring costs, and a recurring annual cost of about $18 million once the SRO program is fully implemented.

Last month, the LCSO released “Expanding SROs to Elementary Schools in Loudoun County: A Strategic Vision for Comprehensive K-12 Safety.”  The report outlines the need, timeline, and anticipated costs of the SRO proposal. It also addresses misconceptions about SRO programs generally and that is no evidence of a “school-to-prison pipeline” in Loudoun.

On the contrary, last year the LCSO charged just 39 students and arrested 1 out of more than 80,000 students enrolled in Loudoun’s public schools.  Almost all school offenses result in diversion and rehabilitation efforts through the county’s juvenile services.

The full report is available online. 

Loudoun continues to be the safest locality in the Washington metropolitan region and one of the safest major counties in the nation. Part 1 (serious) crime in Loudoun dropped another 11% last year to approximately 5.2 crimes per 1,000 residents – down about 48% since 2012.