Keri Jackson

Deputy cares about child safety at Cabot schools

Deputy Keri Jackson is the director of safety and security at Cabot Public Schools. Jackson, who is entering her fourth year with the district, began her law enforcement career in 2003 and has experience investigating crimes against children.
Deputy Keri Jackson is the director of safety and security at Cabot Public Schools. Jackson, who is entering her fourth year with the district, began her law enforcement career in 2003 and has experience investigating crimes against children.

Though she may not wear a typical uniform, Deputy Keri Jackson is the face of safety at Cabot Public Schools.

Jackson, who’s entering her fourth year of being director of safety and security in the district, said every law enforcement role she’s had prior has prepared her for her current one, a position she describes as rewarding.

“Out of all of the things that I’ve done in my life, the jobs that I had that’ve allowed me to help children are the most rewarding for me,” she said. “If your job is rewarding, then you enjoy it. And if you enjoy your job, you’re not really working, they say. You’ll never work a day in your life if you love what you do.”

A Memphis native, Jackson moved to Arkansas in 1994 when she accepted a promotion through FedEx, one of the many companies she worked for before entering her current field. In the past, Jackson has driven FedEx trucks and armored cars, along with working in a veterinarian office. But it was in 2002, when she drove limos for Little Rock Limousine, that she found her way into law enforcement.

“I was at the airport picking up someone, and there was a man there holding the leash of a bomb dog,” she said. “I walked up to him, and I said, ‘I want to help you do what you’re doing.’ And it just so happened that they were about to send a few people to Nottingham, England, for 30 days of bomb-dog training.”

Jackson was chosen to fly abroad for the training in “cold and rainy” Nottingham, where she said she had six months’ worth of intense training — “sun up and sun down” — in just a month and became a certified level three explosive-detection canine handler. When she returned to the states, she said she knew what her next career move would be.

“I still wanted to do something in public safety,” she said. “The bomb-dog training is what made me realize that I wanted to help people in emergency-type situations, so that’s when I thought about becoming a police officer.”

In 2003, Jackson joined the Cabot Police Department, where she worked for nine years and investigated crimes against children. She also was a special agent in the state Attorney General’s office Cyber Crimes Against Children Division, where she provided executive protection for former Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

“Some of the exciting things we did there was busting in the door of child pornographers, searching their house and seizing their computers,” she said.

Her role at the attorney general’s office also led her to travel across the nation for training and conferences on cybercrimes and other crimes against children. She trained at the International Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect in Dallas and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia. She also was trained in child forensic interviewing and undercover chats.

Jackson said she gives the Cabot Police Department much credit for her success.

“Thanks to them, I learned the skills that I need to do this job,” she said. “I was a school resource officer here for three years after being in patrol for a few years, so that familiarized me with the school and how everything works here.”

As director of security and safety, Jackson looks over all 16 campuses and works with four school resource officers. Jackson said every day on the job is different and she never knows what the next one will bring. She also is the official liaison between the school district and the Cabot Police Department.

“If the principals of the schools notice anything out of the ordinary, they will call me, so a lot of times, I will respond to them,” she said. “I make sure that our staff members are trained for emergencies, everything from active shooter all the way down to helping with fire drills, tornado drills.”

Jackson also handles police reports related to the district’s campuses, she said, whether it’s a theft on school property or a vehicle running into a fence near the school.

“I’m the one that anytime the police officers need something with the school, all that stuff goes through me,” she said.

There are both similarities and differences between working in a school environment and working at a police department, she explained.

“I kind of feel like I’m being dispatched by my work phone instead of being dispatched by a real dispatcher in a police

department. I’m kind of my own dispatcher and my own officer responding, as well, ” she said. “For more of my career before this, it was at the Cabot Police Department and my office was my car then. That’s another similarity, though, because I’m in my car a lot now.”

Jackson said it’s important for her to maintain a professional yet caring relationship with students.

“There’s a few of them that you get to know, and it makes you smile when you see them, especially after the long summer to see them again,” said Jackson, whose son graduated from Cabot High School. “Some of them just kind of do their own thing and don’t pay a lot of attention to me. But some of them, they light up and they smile, which just makes my day.”

Jackson said most students take seriously the district’s approach to safety. And though there may be some giggles during a fire or tornado drill, she said that’s OK because “you can’t take everything too seriously.”

Jackson’s role isn’t limited to what happens inside the schools. A student may inform a staff member when he becomes a victim of abuse outside of school, and teachers are good about forwarding that information to the Child Abuse Hotline, Jackson said.

“Many times, I get involved in those as well,” she said. “Not so much as investigating them anymore like I used to, but just kind of overseeing the process and making sure that we as a school district are doing the right things and that we’re not doing things that we shouldn’t do to intervene in the investigation but to assist as much as we can.”

During the summer, Jackson prepares the district’s emergency plans for evacuations and drills and emergency-response binders, which are shared with local law enforcement agencies and include information on campus contacts, emergency shutoff valves on campuses and building maps.

Jackson said she would advise those interested in law enforcement, especially those who wish to work with children, to consider a department with a ride-along program to experience patrol.

“[Students] need to be safe, and they need to feel safe,” she said. “If they can’t do that, then we’re not going to be able to educate them properly. I’m really thankful that [Superintendent Tony Thurman] and the school district also feel like safety is a top priority here.”

Helping the students of Cabot Public Schools is the best perk of the job, Jackson said.

“The best part is just the good feeling, the rewarding feeling that I have, feeling like I make a difference for our students’ lives and feeling like I’ve prepared our teachers and staff,” she said.

Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.

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