Operation CleanSWEEP: The School Safety Program That Earned an A+ - reducing crime in San Bernardino County, California high school

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Oct, 2001 by Gary S. Penrod

When it comes to school security, the news is both good and bad. The bad news is that nothing can prevent a highly motivated individual from eluding even the best security measures whether at the White House, the courthouse, or the schoolhouse. While this represents the bad news of harsh reality, the good news reveals that, in fact, schools can put into place a wide variety of proven, and highly effective, safety procedures and precautions. These security measures--when used in a well-orchestrated manner--can provide a school with a tremendous web of interacting defenses, all of which contribute to making that campus a safer place.

In San Bernardino County, California, an innovative program has succeeded in reducing crime on high school campuses in recent years. A triple partnership program, Operation CleanSWEEP (Success With Education/Enforcement Partnership) includes the office of the superintendent of schools, the sheriff's department, and the court system. This dynamic and dramatically effective program has taken the most productive elements of other approaches and melded them together to make a three-pronged attack on school crime through juvenile citations, security assessment, and special projects. As a result, many school officials and parents regard Operation CleanSWEEP as the premiere safe-campus program in the area today. (1)

NEED FOR THE PROGRAM

The need for a program to reduce incidents of crime and violence on school campuses in San Bernardino County grew out of concern that youth in the county flouted the law on high school campuses and received neither genuine punishment nor rehabilitative guidance. The practice of suspending or expelling students appeared to incubate bad attitudes in at-risk youths without inculcating either a sense of personal responsibility for the behavior or a sense of how youths' actions would affect their future career goals. Therefore, in 1997, the sheriff's department set out to find a better way. It formed a committee of deputies, lawyers, judges, probation officers, and school officials to assess the problem and design a program that could offer safer campuses to San Bernardino County students.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM

Operation CleanSWEEP is a system that, among many different efforts, places students into other programs--programs designed to stymie their unacceptable behavior. For many teenagers, this program represents their first encounter with the concept of personal accountability, and it intends to have them feel the sting of a collective societal reprimand for their actions. At the same time, CleanSWEEP seeks to avoid criminalizing offending students (no permanent criminal record exists for cited students). Moreover, by keeping offenders in the classroom, the program avoids disrupting their education and also helps the school not lose attendance funding due to suspended or expelled students.

A single comprehensive program, Operation CleanSWEEP comprises several interlocking, interdependent parts designed to complement each other. Although CleanSWEEP is intended for the public to perceive it as a unified assault on school crime, in reality, it is a jigsaw puzzle of carefully interrelated factors, all designed to achieve the purpose of making life on a school campus more pleasurable and valuable for the average peaceful student. The entire community--parents, school staff, community-based organizations, public service agencies, local government, and civic groups--all support and lend their expertise and assistance.

How Does It Work?

First, Operation CleanSWEEP takes a "carrot and stick" approach to the issue. In other words, students who violate certain criminal codes (2) on campus face a combination of retributive and rehabilitative measures. They receive both punishment and appropriate counseling to help them avoid problem behavior in the future. A juvenile citation, or ticket, represents the "stick" of the program. Written by a vice principal or dean, the ticket places offending students in informal juvenile traffic court with their parents. (3) There, students can tell the hearing officer, or "judge," their side of the story. The judge imposes a disposition, such as dismissed, convicted, or convicted with a suspended sentence. Usually, the judge fines students a dollar amount, ranging from $30 to $400. Students may waive these fines, the "carrot" of the program, if they agree to certain sanctions, such as improving attendance or grades, providing community service, and attending diversionary programs, such as anger management or smo king cessation classes, depending on the nature of the offense.

The second part of the program involves the security assessment component, which inspects schools for safety-related problems. Deputies conduct detailed analyses of the facilities, scrutinizing every conceivable aspect from a safety standpoint. Specifically, deputies look at--

* physical security;

* crisis response and disaster preparedness plans;

* agency relationships and reporting procedures/discipline policies;