Police officers generally have a duty to comply with school policies on bullying. Often, school policies are multi-faceted to comprehensively address the problem of bullying. For instance, the school may implement rules against gossiping, rumor spreading, social exclusion and all forms of aggression, whether physical or verbal. Although police officers are not on campus day to day to enforce these policies, they still have a duty to promote such policies. If a police officer is presenting anti-bullying measures at a community town hall or at a meeting of parents, he has a responsibility to support whatever policies the school has adopted.
Police officers are accountable for enlisting the support of school administrators, such as principals, to tackle bullying. They are also accountable for collaborating with school administrators to merge energies and efforts against bullying. Importantly, police officers have to stay in regular contact with administrators and maintain communication to discuss efforts and to track the progress of anti-bullying initiatives and interventions.
Police officers are accountable for directly responding to instances of bullying that constitute a crime or violation of the law. For instance, they are required to become involved when a student vandalizes another student's property or steals from another student. Also, fighting and truancy, which can be motivated by bullying, are issues to which police officers have to respond. In past years, local authorities in certain communities have been reluctant to get involved in school issues, as they are often overwhelmed with other issues in the community, such as drug trafficking or violent crime. But to eradicate bullying and reduce violence in schools, police officers have an obligation to respond when schools invoke them.
Police officers also have to collaborate with other government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, private businesses and individuals and create partnerships with these groups to fight bullying. Bullying is a problem that affects the community at large, and it is necessary that the community members join forces to eradicate bullying. For instance, a local YMCA that takes children after school should implement and enforce the policies that the school has adopted. Police officers have a role to forge partnerships with community members, not just school leaders, to fight bullying.