The District Attorney’s Office is proud to release the second in a series of posts to highlight the incredible work of the School Resource Officers across Lancaster County. A School Resource Officer, or SRO, is a law-enforcement officer who is based in a school district to provide assistance with crime prevention and security.

Many of the school districts across the county have SROs working within them and we’d like to recognize them – next up is Officer Paul Moore in the Ephrata School District. Officer Moore has been the SRO for Ephrata since 2015 and a police officer since 1995.

He shared the following experiences:

What is a typical day like for you?

A day consists of a mixture of: teaching and training for emergencies for both students and staff, or teaching student safety like internet or driving safety; mentoring, which can consist of assisting the guidance department with law-enforcement career counseling or mental-health responses; and investigating any violations of the law.

What accomplishments/programs are you most proud of during your time as an SRO?

I am most proud of the good working relationship I have developed with Wellspan Ephrarta Hospital for student mental health and crisis preparedness throughout the district.

What is something you would like people to know about SROs?

Sometimes when people hear a school has a SRO they immediately think the school is so “bad” that they need an armed guard. The SRO program is so much more. The connection with the students is priceless.

What do you like to do in your downtime?

Boating on the Susquehanna River.

(SRO Troy Engle, of Columbia School District, was featured in our first post.)