The National Association of School Resource Officers has 9,000 members who police campuses from the poorest inner cities to the wealthiest suburbs and every venue in between.

Only a handful of the association’s members make presentations at NASRO’s annual conference.

Two of those selected to teach what they know at this year’s NASRO National Conference in Phoenix were members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department: Sgt. Mike McHenry and Deputy Lance Christensen.

Sgt. McHenry heads the Department’s Juvenile Services Unit and Deputy Christensen is a School Resource Officer in the Capistrano Unified School District. It’s an area with lots of wealth and comparatively little crime.

“What we have are kids with too much time and opportunity to do stupid stuff,” Sgt. McHenry told the audience. “We’re not an area that is inner city, we’re not an area that’s problematic. We’re just Anytown U.S.A.  And if it’s there for us, it’s there for you guys too. If we can find it, you can too.”

Like School Resource Officers all around the country, Sgt. McHenry and Deputy Christensen deal with the problems of drugs on campus, school bullies, gangs, fight clubs and the challenge of youngsters who break no rules but still pose a potential threat to other students. 

What is different in Orange County is “The Show.”

What Sgt. McHenry, a veteran of 19 years with the Department, and Deputy Christensen, a 15-year veteran, brought to the NASRO conference was “The Show.”  They created “The Show” to alert parents and school staff to the things they find in the course of their duties.

The drug paraphernalia collection is one of the most visually striking parts of the presentation. It includes elaborate water pipes and bongs that look too big to have been found in school lockers.  The weapons look formidable: brass knuckles, knives and replicas of handguns and submachine guns. More...

The Saddleback Civil Forum on Saturday included appearances by presidential candidates Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama. The forum proved to be an opportunity for the nation to observe its leading presidential candidates engage in the political process in a controlled environment. This forum also gave us the opportunity to assess our efforts in providing security to a packed house, in a venue with limited road access on church grounds that offered many obstacles to the security of those in attendance.

This challenge was well met by the U.S. Secret Service and Orange County public safety agencies. Thanks to extensive planning and coordinated efforts by Lake Forest Chief of Police Services Lt. Don Barnes and his staff, a large number of demonstrators were able to exercise their First Amendment protected rights without significant incident. The demonstrators gathered in the vicinity of Saddleback and Portola Parkways prior to the candidates' arrival and, during the event, engaged in heated debate that had the potential for a hostile confrontation. However, due to the involvement of liaison officers and prior meetings with event organizers, virtually all physical confrontation was avoided.

I want to applaud the performance of our Department members, Reserves, Support Personnel, volunteers, and Command Staff. I also want to thank the local agencies that supported our effort, including California Highway Patrol, the Orange County Fire Authority and the police departments of Anaheim, Buena Park, Garden Grove, Irvine and Santa Ana. We recognize that true success can only be accomplished when allied agencies work together for a common purpose. Our public safety effort insured that there were no injuries, arrests or public disruptions.

SANDRA HUTCHENS

Sheriff-Coroner