Hancock Police Department and Hancock Public Schools announce Darron Olson as school system’s new resource officer

HANCOCK, Mich. (WLUC) - After nearly a year of searching, Hancock Public Schools (HPS) has a new resource officer.

Darron Olson will now be in charge of increasing school security and preventing escalation.

He will also work to build connections with students.

“Think of the School Resource Officer as the old beat-cops,” said HPS Superintendent Steve Patchin. “These are guys who walk the streets with guys and gals, and they help solve problems when they first started. They didn’t let them mushroom. It was more preventative action and more developmental, if you will, and that’s kinda what we were looking for.”

The school board has been working with the Hancock Police Department (HPD) to find a school resource officer since last April’s shooting at Lower Michigan’s Oxford High School.

The school was awarded a $142,500 resource officer grant from the Michigan Office of School Safety in January.

“Once the grant went through, then we had to go through the process of finding the right person for that position,” said HPD Chief Tami Sleeman. “This is not like hiring a new patrol officer. This is somebody that has to be able to come in with a lot of experience and also have that caring and compassionate portion also with working with the students.”

Olson’s experience includes seven years as an Air Force law enforcement specialist and 18 years as a Laurium police officer.

He also worked for nearly five years at the Keweenaw Academy at Mount Horace Greeley, which closed in 2003.

In this new role, he will even have teaching responsibilities.

“We’re going to be doing more programs in the future,” said Olson. “I’ll probably be teaching some classes dealing with cybersecurity, cyberbullying, as well as just regular bullying.”

This appointment comes on the heels of Lake Linden hiring a resource officer and Houghton Public Schools installing one in the fall.

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