Renton High School’s new school resource officer, James Mitchell, said he has a passion for kids and wants to be a positive role model for them.

This year, the Renton School District has three school resource officers, with one at each high school, compared to only one SRO for the entire district previously. Mitchell, who has been with the Renton Police Department for 16 years, said he was in a special operations position that he had to leave soon, so the SRO position opening worked out well.

Before working at the Renton PD, Mitchell said he was an officer in Tukwila for a few years, but his working career began with kids. Before becoming a police officer, Mitchell said he worked at Child Protective Services. At CPS, Mitchell said he had a caseload of 50 kids in the foster care system whom he ensured were receiving proper services and attending school.

In addition to his work, Mitchell said he’s been a volunteer high school football coach for 27 years. He said he’s always had a passion for working with kids and families, which is why he believes he was approached about the position when it opened.

“Taking them up on that offer was a no-brainer for me just because, like I said, I like that age group. I’ve been working with that age group for 20-plus years,” Mitchell said. “Although it’s only been in kind of an athletic setting, but I’m pretty good at building relationships and things like that with that age group.”

Mitchell said that positively guiding the youth and being a role model to them by being an SRO builds a better future for everyone. He thinks the kids he works with have a different perspective than he did, so he wants to try to use his wisdom and knowledge to help guide them to making better decisions. He said the decisions students make now affect their futures, negatively or positively.

“When these kids know that we care, that people care about them, they want to do better, not just for themselves, but for the people who show care in them,” Mitchell said. “So, I think it can tend to make them want to work a little bit harder to be positive citizens.”

Mitchell said that his job is to ensure the kids are safe. He said he does this through walking around the school and doing perimeter checks. He said with many school shootings in the nation, he thinks having an SRO is a way to help kids feel a sense of security. But, if the bad day does happen and there is a shooting at a school, Mitchell said he would not hesitate to take action.

Mitchell said his job is not really to discipline kids. Instead, he is there to keep kids safe and build relationships with the students. He said this is an opportunity for kids to interact positively with police officers. He said he tries to meet someone new every day and not just say hello, but actually get to know them.

Mitchell said police officers usually show up for negative things, such as a fight or something else. Through his work as an SRO, Mitchell said every day is a positive experience when he’s meeting kids, laughing and joking with them, and he enjoys it.

Mitchell said his goal is to let the kids know that although he is a school resource officer, he is still a police officer, but that his coworkers on the street are not all out to get them.

Mitchell said the state of the country and the pulse of the country when it comes to police has not been great. So, if any kid can have a positive experience with him, then it might lead them to think, “‘OK, cops aren’t as bad as I’ve been reading or I’ve been seeing,’“ Mitchell said. He said most police officers are good, and he wants to reiterate that to the kids.

“I just have a passion for kids. I’m a father of four. I have three grandchildren, three step-children. I love kids. Beautiful wife. I’m a happy man,” Mitchell said. “I’m just trying to come to work every day and maybe be a positive light for some of these kids. Even if it’s just one a day.”