AMARILLO, TEXAS -- From patrolling the streets to making drug busts, Amarillo Police officers work hard to keep the streets of Amarillo safe. However, one program has continued to focus on the need to keep the city's schools safe.
Corporal Brazz Vanover is one of 12 officers serving in the APD/AISD School Liaison program.
"We provide safety for the students, safety for the staff, just make sure that everything is running smoothly in the schools," said Cpl. Vanover.
Liaison officers monitor things like student behavior and keep an eye out for police-related problems like violence, graffiti, disorderly conduct or other potentially dangerous issues on campus.
"Throughout the day, I'll go around the campus, I'll go into the classrooms," said Cpl. Vanover. "A lot of times students will come to me with issues maybe from home, issues going on in school. I like to be proactive in trying to catch some of those problems before they become issues for the students."
Despite the additional help from liaison officers like Cpl. Vanover, he said they get plenty of help keeping tabs on students through the Student Crime Stoppers program.
"It could be a weapon tip, it could be a drug tip, it could be a tobacco tip, it could be an alcohol tip, it could be a 'there's going to be a fight after school' tip," added Cpl. Vanover. "A lot of those come in through Student Crime Stoppers and as a police officer in the school, in that liaison role, we will take those in and we'll investigate them as they come in."
Most of the problems APD school liaisons deal with daily, Cpl. Vanover said, are small ones. The police presence alone, he said, is a deterrent to student crime. However, that doesn't mean they're not prepared. Each officers is armed and will take appropriate police action should a police-related problem come up.
Despite their readiness to help when needed, the officer's role as a positive influence is just as important.
"We're not in uniform, we're not out in the police cars and they may have had some experiences out on the streets with a uniformed officer," said Cpl. Vanover. "That experience is different than it can be with the relationships we build with the students inside the schools. They view us as kind of a tool to help them and not necessarily as just police trying to put them in jail or trying to look for something bad to happen."
