Rebranding surveillance as social justice — Toronto’s School Resource Officer Program

Institutional efforts which rebrand inner-city surveillance as socio-economic redress have increasingly informed punitive regression in youth justice, for youth of colour. This paper responds to a critical debate emerging within the youth justice literature, which considers that the widespread punitiveness characterising youth justice since the 1990s is at an end. The case for punitive regression draws on the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program in Toronto, Canada — a scheme which assigns armed, uniformed police officers to high school in socio-economic deprived inner-city communities. The SRO scheme emerged as part of the ‘Priority Community’ initiative, a model of urban, socio-economic regeneration intended to redress socio-economic inequity. While the SRO scheme emerged as part of an agenda to redress inequity, one outcome has been higher rates of suspension, expulsion and arrests for black students — compared to their white classmates. The case for punitive regression challenges the notion that the state of contemporary youth justice is entering an era of progressive reform. Moreover, the paper problematises the notion of ‘Progressive’ in regards to the institutional consensus which has made surveillance synonymous with social justice.