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Home » Safety, Security & Emergency Management » Stakeholder Relations

Stakeholder Relations

Coordination with local law enforcement, emergency responders, and community partners.

Collaboration: Enhanced Communication and Coordination

  • In the three years since the SRO program’s removal, APS and ACPD have implemented several key initiatives to strengthen communication and coordination.
  • Updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): Defining roles, responsibilities, and communication protocols.
  • Engagement in the Schools: Various programs and initiatives throughout APS.
  • Regular Joint Training Sessions: Ensuring consistent understanding of emergency response and best practices.
  • ACPD Roll Call Briefings: Providing officers with up-to-date APS information.
  • Joint Threat Assessment Meetings: Collaborative threat assessment and response.
  • Regular Meetings: APS and SSEM leadership and ACPD command staff for ongoing communication.

APS & Law Enforcement Partnership

The Memorandum of Understanding between APS and ACPD (October 20, 2024) outlines mutual expectations regarding the ways that ACPD and APS will partner to achieve the shared goals of promoting supportive, safe and secure schools for students, faculty and staff. The MOU was updated on March 10, 2022 and redefines and reimagines the partnership between APS and ACPD. The broad goals of the MOU are:

  • Reduce student involvement in the criminal justice system by having student disciplinary issues handled within the school building by school administrators;
  • Protect student rights afforded to them legally under all federal, state, and local laws;
  • Formally detail the specific situations as referenced in the Code of Virginia when students are to be referred to law enforcement; and
  • Control access to student information as mandated by FERPA.

More specifically, the MOU aims to:

  • Foster timely, clear communication and collaboration about safety and security matters affecting schools.
  • Collaborate with other County services, advocates, and service providers to increase access to resources to support students and families (for example, counselors, drug and alcohol specialists, and family support services).
  • Provide law-related education to students and staff and expand school safety and crime prevention education efforts.
  • Increase mechanisms to equip the schools to safely reduce conflict, and support effective non-punitive interventions for students.
  • Provide guidance to staff on school safety and security issues, including assessments and emergency planning.
  • Continue to implement positive interactions with students and ACPD, including on substance abuse prevention and educational programs on understanding your rights.
  • Decrease students’ potential involvement with the criminal justice system through education and enhanced in-school support services.
  • Collaborate on planning and preparing for matters related to the safety of schools and students, staff, and administrators.
  • Facilitate regular positive interactions between law enforcement and students in schools, including educational programming, substance use prevention, after-school activities, sporting events, and other non-enforcement interactions.
  • Provide supplemental external support for APS during the school day and provide staffing for extracurricular events as requested by APS using the special event and activity guidelines, as staffing permits.
  • Participate together on the APS Safety Audit Committee supporting the development of APS emergency operations plans and exercises and will offer assistance to individual schools when resources are available and coordinated with the Department of Safety, Risk and Emergency Management.
  • Respond to emergencies, ensuring ACPD has full access to APS facilities for the purpose of keeping students, staff, and administrators safe from an ongoing threat.
  • Maintain communication about developing scenarios that may impact schools if not directly originating from a school.
  • Cooperate on ACPD investigations and actions, with respect to criminal investigations where the criminal activity took place on school property, without hindering or interfering with their law enforcement duties.
  • Provide training for APS staff and administrators on relevant topics to include restorative practices, student-centric approaches to de-escalation, cultural competency, equity impact analysis, trauma informed approaches, alternatives to school Student Code of Conduct sanctions, and relevant Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) curriculum as deemed appropriate for external collaboration with ACPD.

Know Your Rights: Interacting with Law Enforcement

Arlington Public Schools wants to make sure our secondary students know their 4th and 5th Amendment rights and have all the resources they need to  become informed, civic-minded members of society.Since 2018 we have provided students with a Know Your Rights Guide and a Canvas course. The course goals are to:

  • Remind students to remain calm and respectful when interacting with law enforcement;
  • Suggest language that students can use to express their rights; and
  • Provide information regarding searches.

Additional resources about juvenile interactions with law enforcement include:

DOWNLOAD:

Know Your Rights: Your Guide to Interacting with Law Enforcement FlyerEspañol | Монгол | አማርኛ |  العربية

Moving forward, APS and ACPD

  • Continue to strengthen communication and coordination.
  • Utilize data-driven strategies to inform security initiatives.
  • Prioritize proactive prevention and intervention efforts.
  • Regularly evaluate and refine collaborative strategies.
  • Continue to seek opportunities when ACPD can provide non law enforcement engagement to students and staff.
  • Continuous cycle of joint training and learning in emergency management.