Elkin Police Department Corporal Kevin Hall fills a unique role. While serving as an active member on the police force, Hall's office is not located at EPD headquarters. He can instead be found in the office of Elkin High School alongside administrators and teachers.

Hall's special niche puts him in the place of both a law enforcement officer and a school staff member. In this position he observes students, patrols halls, monitors morning and afternoon school traffic and, in general, maintains a presence of safety, protection and friendship for Elkin students, faculty and staff as Elkin City Schools Student Resource Officer.

After five years with the Elkin Police Department, Hall is entering his second year as ECS's SRO. Hall believes that the dual-role of police officer and school staff member suits him well.

“It's something I'd always thought about doing. I'd always enjoyed working with our church youth, and I thought I had the personality to work with kids,” said Hall.

Hall says that part of his job as a student resource officer is interacting with students so that they develop a positive relationship with law enforcement.

“I'm here to be a presence in the school, to be seen and to interact with kids. I get to know them and let them get to know me so that they'll develop a good relationship with the police department,” said Hall.

In addition to forming beneficial relationships between the schools and the police department, Hall is also a mentor and role model to school children. He provides guidance and tools that students from Kindergarten to high school need to make good judgments and personal decisions.

As the ECS SRO, Hall leads the Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, program at Elkin Elementary School. Hall emphasizes that DARE is about more than drug-use prevention. Similar to the principles of his own job, the program instills the values of forming positive, long-lasting relationships in a community and provides lifelong decision-making guidelines.

“DARE is about friendships – what makes a good or a bad friend – bullying and making wise and good decisions. We use a DARE decision-making model, “Define, Assess, Respond and Evaluate,” to help in making good decisions,” said Hall.

Hall is also Elkin High School's Students Against Destructive Decisions, or SADD, club sponsor. In his second year at EHS, Hall is planning on building the school's SADD club by increasing attendance and beginning new activities and events.

For Hall, the duty of helping students make positive life decisions has a deep personal significance. Hall has a daughter, Kayte, in first grade at Elkin Elementary School. He hopes that she and her friends grow up in the environment of a safe school where students and staff respect each other.

While not at school, Hall remains an active member of his community by serving as a lieutenant in the Ronda Volunteer Fire Department. He lives in Ronda with his wife, Jammie, and daughter, Kayte.