Inside Coweta Police: Officers wear multiple hats to serve their community

This week is national police week, a week to honor those in law enforcement who've made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

Officers Wear Many Hats in Small Town Policing

Now more than ever, officers are asked to do much more than just take criminals to jail; they are expected to be domestic violence counselors, mental health experts, and social workers, just to name a few.

News On 6 rode along with a couple of Coweta Police officers who wear many of those hats.

Coweta police only has 18 officers, and that includes one detective and the police chief, so everyone does a little bit of everything. They say even though it's a smaller town, they deal with the same types of crime and face the same dangers, but with fewer resources.

Inside Coweta Schools: Role Model and Protector

Officer Matt Brabson is in his first year as a Coweta Police school resource officer and stays busy.

"Usually, we will get a call from one of the schools that we will have to go to the address. A number of different incidents, kids misbehaving, fights, we have to do suicide assessments, threat assessments," said Brabson.

Officer Brabson wears many hats. He is also the department's drone pilot; he works patrol, helps animal control, helps firefighters, and investigates his own cases. He spends most of his time in Coweta's schools serving as a protector, a role model, and sometimes even a father figure to students.

"I am a father also, this comes naturally to me, and I think this is one of the more important hats to wear. We are involved directly in kids' lives and developing kids. When they make poor choices, discussing the consequences with them, not to be that bad guy but just to be another step in the road," said Brabson.

"He is fantastic. He is the best," said Shelby Rowan, the Coweta Junior High counselor.

Brabson works daily with the school counselors, like Rowan, to help kids with whatever they need.

She says Brabson is much more than just an officer to the students, they look up to him, he participates in school activities, and is a positive role model.

"When you have a kid that's in crisis, this is the last time they want to see, and the last person they want to see is usually law enforcement, but with my SROs, sometimes when they walk in there, they are like oh okay. He's here, he is pretty cool," said Rowan.

K9 Officer Rice Answers the Call Day or Night

Officer Matt Rice is the department's only K9 officer and used to be an SRO, but in a small department, he does it all.

"You'll get a case and you are with it from the beginning, most likely to the end, unless it's like a real big case and the detective will take over," said Rice.

This is his first year working with K9 Braxton after they completed training together last summer. Being the only K9 officer, Rice is on call 24/7, but he loves it.

"I literally answered my phone at 3:45 this morning and came in by 4 to run a drug sniff at 4:15 this morning," said Rice.

Community Connections and Lasting Impact

Rice says Coweta may be a smaller town, but they deal with the same types of crime and face the same dangers. He says it may even be more dangerous because they don't have 30 officers who can respond to an emergency; it may only be him and K9 Braxton. But, he says it's rewarding working in a small town where he feels like he is making a difference.

"I do it for my kids, man. I was scared of the cops when I was a kid, I was scared of police officers; that was kind of instilled in me. Now, I wanted to humanize this uniform for my babies," said Rice.