DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The Davenport Police Department is on the road to hiring additional school resource officers.
In early 2018, the department received a grant in conjunction with the city, a private trust and the Davenport community, according to Major Jeff Bladel with the police department. With this grant, they've been approved to hire four new officers, allowing them to assign two officers to community-based projects and two others to be school resource officers.
Officer Curtiss Carter is the school resource officer for Davenport West High School. His day-to-day work includes monitoring the halls during passing time, working on reports, checking in with students, and ensuring there are no unusual vehicles in the parking lot, to name a few.
They also have curriculum that allows Officer Carter to educate students on the ins and outs of law enforcement, which he said often leads to questions about his position.
"It would go toward our job and they would ask a lot of questions about what we do as police officers," he said. "What it has evolved into is more of a recruitment process."
Officer Carter said several students in the school have shown interest in getting involved in law enforcement.
Senior at Davenport West Riley McIntire, said he's wanted to be a police officer since he was a little kid.
He said he wants to make an impact on the community and taking part in the curriculum offered by the school resource officer can help him in the future.
"I think that’s how you become a better officer, you start right now, in high school," he said.
Adding school resource officers to Davenport's fleet will help the department expand their program into the junior high school level. The new school resource officers will begin at the start of the 2018-2019 school year.