School resource officers across the state are shifting from DARE to TEAM: Here's what that means

Nearly three dozen recent graduates of the Michigan State Police’s Teaching, Educating and Mentoring School Liaison Program are now trained to educate students on a variety of important safety topics.

Thirty law enforcement personnel from across the state completed the four-day TEAM training Thursday, Oct. 6. The program is a school-based, law-related curriculum that helps officers “better equip children to protect themselves from crime.”

The program has been implemented in more than 250 school districts across the state.

Graduates from the recent training come from police departments based in Allegan, Benzie County, Berrien County, Calhoun County, Constantine, Dearborn Heights, Emmet County, Farmington Hills, Harbor Springs, Isabella County, Lenawee County, Livingston County, MSP Cadillac Post, MSP Headquarters, Mackinac Island, Manistee County, Mason County, Montmorency County, Osceola County, Ottawa County, Owosso, Richfield, Saginaw Township, St. Joseph County, Washtenaw County and Zeeland.

Topics covered for students include personal safety, how to reach emergency services, bullying, social media use, vaping, dating violence and more. Lessons are broken down from kindergarten to high school.

The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office has participated in the TEAM School Liaison Program for close to 10 years, said School Resource Officer Program Supervisor Ryan DeVries.

“We’ve been doing this for quite a few years now,” he said. “A lot of agencies have gone away from programs like DARE. (TEAM) is not new, but it’s kind of (a) replacement for DARE."

Emmet County Sheriff Peter Wallin said he prefers the program to DARE because it covers grades K-12, making sure no students get missed.

“It's proactive and it makes the schools and communities safer,” he said. "It promotes the students to be responsible citizens and give them positive character traits — and it helps them make good decisions.”

All school districts in Ottawa County have school resource officers, mostly supplied by OCSO. DeVries said that, with the recent deputy graduation, all 11 OCSO SROs have gone through the TEAM School Liaison Program. Several members of OCSO who aren’t currently SROs have also had the training.

DeVries said the curriculum helps SROs build relationships in schools while teaching valuable information.

“It’s a great and easy way for us to get in the classroom and start building those relationships in our communities at an early age,” he said. “We want them to look at us as another person in the building they can come to, share things with and seek out help.

“(Students) get to know deputies as a person. They have more time to converse and share — and it’s a win for us, (because) we get to teach some really valuable lessons they can take on as life skills as they get older.”

Tyler Swiss, a recent program graduate and Harbor Springs SRO said TEAM helps students have a positive relationship with law enforcement and know officers are there to help.

“I feel it's important to have a good working relationship between police and the schools so we have open lines of communication,” Swiss said. "I think that a very important component is having officers in the school and the kids having positive relationships with law enforcement.”

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Wallin of Emmet County said the department’s recently graduated liaison works with two different school districts, Pellston and Alanson. He said the program allows the students in those schools to see the officer as a mentor.

The next round of TEAM Liaison Training is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 6-9, 2023, and Sept. 25-28, 2023.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Contact reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: School resource officers shift from DARE to TEAM: Here's what that means