Making a difference is goal of new school resource officer

Weiser School District students are really enjoying seeing a couple of new faces that have started to frequent the schools. Officer Cody Samson, along with his canine partner Abbey, is enjoying his new job as school resource officer.
    Samson has 14 years of experience working in law enforcement. After starting his career in Washington County Sheriff’s Office as a detention deputy, Samson worked for Adams County for about three years before coming to work for the Weiser Police Department as a patrol officer.
    Samson is grateful to work in Weiser. He shared that Weiser is a nice community where the majority of the community supports law enforcement. This allows him to spend more time helping him focus on his favorite part of the job: helping people.
    From recovering stolen property, helping victims of domestic violence, or helping during a medical emergency, Samson has valued his opportunities to make a positive difference in the lives of citizens, although sometimes that means dealing with people at their worst and high stress situations.     
 Samson enjoys that every day is different and that in the end, he can help make a difference.
    When the position for the school resource officer became available, Samson felt he had the opportunity to interact with the students at the schools and let them see a different side of law enforcement that isn’t usually seen.  
    “I want to be able to help students that need help whether it is with school issues or issues they are having elsewhere,” Samson said.
    Although Samson is still also working on-call duty, he has worked hard to spend time in all four schools, becoming a familiar and friendly face.
    From throwing the football with students at park school, to answering all sorts of questions about being a cop at Pioneer Elementary School, Samson has made a good impression already.
    Along with Samson himself, students have also shown a liking to his partner, Abbey, a narcotics detection K-9.  In each school, the kids get to see Abbey, and they always want to come and pet her.
    “Having Abbey as a partner has been great and she makes my job even better,” Samson said.
    Abbey not only gives the kids a fun highlight to the school day, she has also been a great resource for helping to find illegal narcotics. Knowing she is in and around the schools, also deters the kids from wanting to bring anything illegal in the schools.  
    According to the National Association of School Resource Officers, the goals of SRO programs include providing safe learning environments in our nation’s schools. The SRO has three main roles: educator (i.e. guest lecturer), informal counselor/mentor, and law enforcement officer.
    Clearly, Weiser School District is lucky to have Officer Samson and his partner Abbey on the job.