As a new school year begins, this week, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody encouraged participation in a new initiative to help students build positive relationships with school resource officers. The Hallway Heroes initiative will provide schools with crime-prevention resources to foster relationships with school resource officers and urge students to report suspicious activity.
“As the mother of a school-aged child who is about to head back to class, I am excited about our new initiative to keep students safe and help law enforcement stop crime. Our Hallway Heroes initiative will encourage students to build positive relationships with their school resource officers to increase school safety. We have already seen how building these bonds of trust between students and officers can help law enforcement stop crime and better protect students, and we hope this new initiative will serve to further strengthen these important relationships,” Moody said.
The Hallway Heroes initiative will introduce three different styles of crime-prevention posters in elementary, middle and high schools across the state. Each poster will be tailored to the age group of the school. The goal of these resources is to encourage students to work with Hallway Heroes, school resource officers, to tell the officers if students are aware of a crime. In the case of middle and high schoolers, the posters include information on how to use the statewide tip reporting line, **TIPS.
More than two years ago, Moody partnered with the Florida Association of Crime Stoppers to launch the first-ever, statewide phone number for the anonymous citizen reporting process, **TIPS. Now, Floridians can anonymously report information from anywhere in the state to reach the local Crime Stoppers office. Last February, Crime Stoppers USA adopted the phone number for nationwide use.
The idea for Hallway Heroes came from stories about students reporting suspicious situations to school resource officers—providing the officers with the information needed to protect students. Moody highlighted one such story during the Office of the Attorney General Victims’ Rights Week Ceremony.
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