Aug. 27—Newly appointed Ector County ISD Assistant Police Chief Jeff Daniels comes to the job with a wealth of institutional knowledge and out of the box thinking.

The former lieutenant's promotion comes at a time when school safety is once more in the spotlight with the tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

About eight years ago, Daniels moved into a master sergeant position, which became a lieutenant spot. Just recently, he was promoted to his current spot.

He added that he really likes working in schools and with kids.

"I was on campus eight years and it's a very rewarding job. It is true community policing; 100 percent. When you talk about a community policing police department, a school district is that. You take an officer and you basically put them in a small city and they get to know their people; they get to know their kids; they get to know their faculty," Daniels said.

"They become friends and mentors to these kids," he added.

Daniels has been in law enforcement for 27 years — 24 with ECISD and three with the Odessa College Police Department.

"As a young kid, I always found it interesting," Daniels said of what drew him to law enforcement. "Then as I grew older, I worked in the security field, so (I'd) work half a day, go to high school half a day. My work job was being a security officer catching shoplifters ...," Daniels said.

He added that he would meet the officers that came out to their calls and was influenced by them. They suggested he go to the police academy, so he did.

Daniels worked for Lowe's Marketplace, Mervyn's department store and then the Odessa Police Department.

Going to OC, Daniels said, was a great starting point. Plus he got to experience different calls and work on a school campus, which prepared him to work for ECISD.

At the time, he said a lot of officers were shifting into school districts.

"It was kind of a new policing job and I'd worked with a lot of them real closely," Daniels said.

He followed the trend and started working weekend alarms for ECISD part time. The district had an opening, so he applied.

Becoming assistant chief "just kind of evolved."

"We didn't have an assistant chief position, so my goal was to be chief. I wanted to be prepared with a bachelor's degree," so he went to school, Daniels said.

He recently reached that objective, completing a bachelor's degree in business leadership from OC.

"In the process of doing that, the assistant chief position was created. We just saw a need for another step in our chain, for our approval processes and for us to be outlined with the way the Department of Justice has everything set up. We wanted to follow that trend. So they implemented the assistant chief job and I was able to get it," Daniels said.

Under the emergency management part of his job, Daniels oversees all audits of things like classroom doors, and drills on the campuses and the school district level. More video cameras and hand-held radios for schools also have been added.

They ensure that campuses have up to date emergency operations plans that give them an idea of where they should go and the processes to follow.

"... We oversee all emergency drills throughout the district for instructional and non-instructional facilities. We ensure that all drills are completed and the proper reporting is done ... That's about 10 drills a year per campus, per location," Daniels said.

Daniels and his wife Anna have three children and one granddaughter.

Chief Todd Hiner said Daniels has a variety of experience and could go work anywhere, but he has chosen to stay at ECISD.

"... He's a hard worker; very dependable; very respected, both internally and externally. He is educated; he's creative; and he leads by strong example," Hiner said.

Hiner added that Daniels is well respected in the community.

"One thing that I really like was he's innovative on coming up with new plans, programs and processes. Also, tactically speaking, he's one of our tactical leaders. ...," Hiner said.

Having been assigned to train with OPD SWAT for 15 years, Daniels was able to bring what he learned back to ECISD, so they have been conducting ALERRT training before it was called that for many years.

He stepped down from that July 1, 2022.

"... They just formalized it by calling it ALERRT training. It's a lot more refined probably than it was years ago, but he (Daniels) helped us to bring that tactical piece to the officers and to disseminate the training," Hiner said.

For example, Hiner said he proposed bringing simulations into the department for tactical training and exercises and they have been holding those for probably 15 years.

"We kind of shifted years ago to get that and we have locations that we would go to and set up the scenarios and set up the trainings and we've been doing that for years before it was called ALERRT. ...," Hiner said.

They have six trainers who train the other officers in ALERRT, along with those from other law enforcement agencies.

"We've been strong about that training for years and we've put strong emphasis behind that for years," Hiner said.

Hiner said there is a "suspicion" that the ranks will grow from its current 29 members, including command staff.

"I think there are some grants that will come in the future that are going to certainly address ... employing more police officers on the campuses and just for the protective piece. ... It's been a while since we saw that ... but I think it's probably coming. It'll come from either the federal or state level, so I suspect we'll grow in the future; without question," Hiner added.

There are many specific jobs that officers perform. Daniels also is emergency management coordinator, which is very time consuming, Hiner said.

"We have him and we have our officers now that are doing audits on campuses ...," Hiner said.

He added that they not only have to undergo ALERRT, or Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, but there are mandated trainings like restorative justice, for example.

Daniels said that is a one-time, 40-hour training.

"There are so many different trainings that come at you. It's not just TECOL related, which is the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, of your basic core trainings that you have to continue your education with. But there's more now for school district police officers, so there's a lot. ...," Hiner said.

As mandates have come about, training time has increased for district officers.

Officers' schedules were centered around teachers' schedules, so they had 10-month police officers and 12 month officers.

"We had to increase their time to 10 and a half months, so that we could add an additional two weeks so we could keep up with the training. ... We also think there's going to come a time when we will have to be a year-round position just to address the training needs that have come our way. There's a lot more that's been put on us," Hiner said.