New Student Resource Officer (SRO) for Shoreline Public Schools

Officer Greg McKinney in front of Shorewood High School
Photo by Marianne Deal Stephens

By Marianne Deal Stephens

A walk through halls of Shorewood High School with Officer Greg McKinney isn’t like a walk with anyone else. As the kids see the uniformed police officer, they move aside, yet the space around the new Shoreline Secondary School Resource Officer (SRO) is filled with friendly greetings and bridged with low-fives to kids he knows by name. One student even squeals in delight, and asks Officer McKinney on the spot if he will be in her movie, an assignment for a class.

Only several weeks into his new SRO position at both Shorewood and Shorecrest High Schools, Gregory McKinney estimates that he knows 200-300 kids’ names at each school. He spends time with students in casual situations — when I arrived, he was seated with a group of students in the Commons — simply getting to know them and intervenes when necessary or when his assistance is requested. The day we met, he had already dealt with a possible stranger harassment of a student on the way to school (he didn’t think it would pan out to be a truly dangerous threat), a report of marijuana possession, and a dispute between two students in which he will act as a mediator.

To explain why he loves his job, Officer McKinney contrasts his days with those of an officer in a standard position, who has a string of negative contacts with the public ”at the worst points in their lives.” Officer McKinney’s days in Shoreline Schools resemble our walk down the hallway: it’s “happy, happy, happy, happy” interspersed with a few negative encounters, which he calls “just daily stuff.”

When asked how he ended up in this position, Officer McKinney went back to his beginnings, saying that can relate to the kids who are struggling. When he was in high school, his parents divorced and he and his mom were briefly homeless. He failed his sophomore year and repeated it, taking five years to graduate.

In high school, he belonged to the Junior ROTC, where Instructor Kenneth Ching became not only a mentor, but a father figure as well. Now, decades later, Officer McKinney regularly attends reunions with his former mentor and other former Junior ROTC participants. The grown men attribute their success — in an array of professions — to their mentor’s influence while they were in high school.

Here in Shoreline, Officer McKinney seeks to be that kind of a mentor. Even before he became SRO, he worked with teens in two capacities in Shoreline. As a part-time Coordinator for King County Low Income Housing, he visits all seven properties in Shoreline and assists families, often helping them access other agencies. And, many kids know Officer McKinney because for eight years, he spent Friday or Saturday evenings at the Teen Center (City of Shoreline Richmond Highlands Recreation Center) hanging out with kids and buying them pizza for dinner out of his own pocket.

While most police officers avoid SRO positions because of the scrutiny and potential for a career-ending incident, Officer McKinney sought out the Shoreline School District SRO position, applying right when Officer Mike Bardsley retired at the end of the 2014-2015 school year. Shoreline School District’s SRO position is unusual because the officer has four schools under his supervision. Most districts have one officer per middle or high school.

Officer McKinney divides the bulk of his time between Shorecrest and Shorewood High Schools, but has also been visible at Einstein and Kellogg Middle Schools. He does not want his only contact with middle school students to come when there is an incident. 

Even though he has not been able to spend much time at the middle schools, he mentioned that some of the students already recognize and greet him when they see him out in the community. Though Officer McKinney is spread very thin as the only SRO in the District, he declares “it’s a great job.”

Officer McKinney guest teaches twice in every freshman health class, where he freely shares about his own history and says he “doesn’t mind embarrassing myself” to help prevent kids’ mistakes. He talks about sexting, drugs, suicide, and other things he has seen as a police officer, hoping that his accounts will help kids understand the consequences and the “law portion” of behaviors. While he has no reports of sexting this year, he “assume[s] it is happening.”

When asked about the widely circulated video of a confrontation in October between a Spring Valley High School South Carolina SRO and a student (see CNN story), Officer McKinney discussed the difficulties embedded in any confrontation.

Officers have to “uphold the law”, and “we can’t lose” when faced with defiance or opposition. Not all interactions between the South Carolina student and authorities are immediately apparent in the video. Officers “have to make the best decision we can at the time” and “we do not have the option to run away.” Officer McKinney mentions that only a tiny number of incidents end up being circulated; the vast majority of incidents with police officers end positively and without any publicity.

Officer McKinney described in general terms what he might do in a confrontation with a student. He would clear out the other students, and “slow things down [to allow] more time.” Referring to both the video and potential confrontations with students, he says “I can understand both sides.”

Following the news of the viral video, Officer McKinney met with the Black Student Union clubs at each high school. The kids’ main message was “we want change.” The Officer responded not only that he himself is “a part of the change,” but also asked the students “how many of you are willing to be a police officer?” By and large, they haven’t thought about it, so he tells the students that they and others like them are needed in law enforcement, which is an excellent career field with very good salaries. He hopes that his words will get through to some of the kids, saying that “we need to find people who have struggled” to go into law enforcement.

The presence of School Resource Officers in American high schools has increased dramatically over the last 20 years. Most descriptions of the role use a phrase like “hybrid educational, correctional, and law enforcement officer”.(1) SROs are tasked with increasing school safety, supporting the educational mission of the school, acting as informal counselors, extending community policing efforts into schools, and many other duties.(2) The National Association of School Resource Officers points to studies that indicate a decrease in disciplinary incidents and crime in schools and communities where SROs are visible and active.(3)

Officer Greg McKinney clearly did not need a lengthy SRO description to know how to do his job. As he serves all Shorecrest and Shorewood students and educators, he observes that “there are lots of kids who are fine” and aims to help the ones who are experiencing difficulties. He can relate to them and have an impact since “it is crazy out there.”

He told me that “I teach and mentor with my heart,” which he does at the same time he polices with his skills and experience. Office McKinney wears his two hats — as mentor and enforcer —comfortably as he does “what I was meant to do”.
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1. School Resource Officers: Law Enforcement Officers in Schools, Congressional Research Service, 2013.
2. and 3. To Protect and Educate: The School Resource Officer and the Prevention of Violence in Schools, National Association of School Resource Officers, 2012.