School resource officers (SROs), police officers employed in public school districts as a part of school safety protocol, are widely criticized for their criminalization of student behavior and perpetuation of racist policing practices seen across the United States. In response to the #CopsOutCPS campaign to remove SROs from the Chicago Public School (CPS) district, CPS administration and the Illinois Board of Education passed a policy that allows individual schools to vote on their SRO status. Many previous studies have examined the criminalizing effect that the presence of SROs have on students, but there exists little research that explores what the absence of SROs means for a school. In this paper, I identify how CPS community members understand what removing SROs will do to their schools and their safety. I interview students, teachers, parents, administrators and local school council representatives from Chicago Public Schools to gauge their beliefs around school safety and what role, if any, SROs should have in it. I found that, while most interviewees were advocates for SRO removal, this sentiment was not unanimous. Those who believed the future of school safety involved SROs believed their role must drastically change. Participants also highlighted the role in which teachers play in surveillance and criminalization of student behavior and offered their alternatives to policing. Based on these findings, I offer recommendations for Chicago Public Schools and argue that the district should continue giving schools the choice in SRO status with the ultimate goal of making the SRO position obsolete through funding alternative school safety plans. The findings here may supplement the district’s conversation on the future of school safety as the policy continues to take greater effect.