An extra 15 officers will be placed in Queensland schools

EXTRA police will be embedded in schools across Queensland under a plan to beef up community law enforcement.

120619 Queensland police adopt-a-cop

EXTRA police will be embedded in schools across Queensland under a plan to beef up community law enforcement and pre-empt behaviour-management issues.

Premier Campbell Newman has committed to placing an additional 15 school-based police officers at high schools across the state, bringing the number to 50. About 800 "adopt-a-cop" officers also work with primary schools.

The officers' work is largely proactive, presenting a familiar police face to young people and presenting safety messages targeted to "at risk" students.

But the police union has raised concerns about resources, citing a review that revealed 26 assaults on police in five years at schools.

Police Minister Jack Dempsey worked as an adopt-a-cop in regional Queensland for 20 years before entering politics.

"This program provides students with life safety and crime prevention skills as well as mentoring," he said.

A 2002 paper by Education Queensland officer Stephanie Curtis found up to 92 per cent of teachers agreed the officers had a positive influence on students.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers said the boost in numbers was an acknowledgment more needed to be done.

According to official police data from 2006-07 to 2010-11, the number of assaults in "educational" settings _ not just at schools _ dropped from 809 to 768.

At Kimberley Park State School, in Logan about 30km southeast of Brisbane, Senior Constable Julie Campbell has been the police liaison for almost a decade. She says her connection with the children and the uniform gives the position authority.

"What we have the opportunity to do is represent the service, show that police are real, they're approachable, we're just like them," she said.

"I see my role there as being a positive one."

Principal Ross Harvey said the program was a "jigsaw piece" in the operation of the school. "Sometimes we have children who are troubled _ not very often but occasionally," he said.

"(Constable Campbell) can help if we have difficulty keeping them on the school grounds or keeping them safe. Police officers have a lot of experience with that kind of emotional situation."

He cited an incident five years ago when a troubled 11-year-old boy was hiding deep in the grounds of the school. Constable Campbell was able to safely coax him back to the classroom when teachers could not.