AUSTIN, Texas — As Eanes Independent School District students head back to class on Wednesday, the district’s police officers will also be starting their first full school year.
The formation of the district's new police force aligns with a state law that requires at least one armed officer on every campus in Texas during school hours. The law, House Bill 3, was passed by legislators following the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
After protecting Austin’s streets for 23 years, retired Austin Police Department (APD) officer Veneza Bremner is now protecting campuses in a new ride and a new role.
“The most important part of it is the children,” said Bremner, who is now a police officer with the Eanes ISD Police Department. “My husband’s like, ‘You’re never gonna retire now, are you?’ and I said, ‘Nope.’”
Bremner is assigned to an elementary school in Eanes ISD. “Hanging out with kids, helping them get out of their cars and high-fiving and hugs" is how she describes a typical workday.
She is one of the officers commissioned in March for Eanes ISD’s first-ever police department after the district got approval from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
“It’s quite a process,” Matthew Greer, chief of police with the Eanes ISD Police Department, said.
Greer said cost, control and HB 3 led the school board to vote to create the district police force in June 2023.
“We don't want to be one more in that long line of news stories,” Superintendent Jeff Arnett said during a June 2023 interview with KVUE. “We want to do everything we can to protect our students and our staff."
Previously, Eanes ISD employed two school resource officers from the Travis County Sheriff’s Office and six security staff members, at an estimated cost of $935,000 per year.
The new police force has 11 full-time armed officers and one civilian employee, at an estimated annual cost of $1.6 million. Two officers are assigned to Westlake High School, along with one to each middle and elementary school campus.
Patrol vehicles are required for state approval. Eanes ISD officials say officers need them to respond to emergencies at any district campus across 32 square miles.
After formally inviting more than 90 registered vendors to bid in summer 2023, two qualified vendors responded. Arnett said the board chose the Tesla Model Y because the electric SUVs were a better deal for taxpayers and arrived within 60 days, while traditional gas-powered SUVs would have been backordered for more than 12 months.
Voter-approved bonds are paying for the vehicles and their charging stations.
Shortly after the vote, some parents praised the idea of a district police force.
"It's more than important, and it's something that I think every single elementary age parent across the United States is shouting from the rooftops,” Chandler Hatchett, an Eanes ISD parent, said during a June 2023 interview with KVUE. “We've got to do more to keep our kids safe in school."
Others expressed concern during a May 2023 town hall meeting.
“Typically, schools and police forces are not the same kind of organizations to run,” one speaker said.
Since then, officers say most parents have been supportive.
“We don’t participate in any discipline to any students, any administrative duties, anything like that,” Bremner said.
“The people we’ve been able to recruit are so amazing,” Greer said. “They’re all people that I know and that I’ve worked with in the past, and their reputations proceed them.”
Most Eanes ISD officers retired from APD, and all have extensive law enforcement experience.
“Obviously, physical security of the campus is sort of [the] No. 1 priority, being present and being a deterrence,” Greer said. “They spend a lot of time just building relationships with kids and staff members.”
Officers also check building security, handle traffic control and run safety drills.
After a summer spent training themselves and staff, the officers are ready for the start of a new school year – and for some, a new purpose.
“I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, what I’m meant to be doing in this life,” Bremner said.
Under HB 3, the state contributes $15,000 per campus and $10 per student based on average daily attendance.