T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Logan Wolf of the Marshalltown Police Department is the new School Resource Officer at Marshalltown High School.

Students at Marshalltown High School will be seeing a familiar face walking through the halls this school year as Marshalltown Police Officer Logan Wolf has officially been installed as the building’s new School Resource Officer (SRO).

The Le Grand native steps into the role having served on the Marshalltown Police Department since 2015. It’s here that Wolf has channeled his passion for not only law enforcement but also interpersonal outreach in the community.

“I’m really big on communication and talking to people,” Wolf said. “I think the start of everything is building rapport and relationships with people.”

Now, as the school’s designated SRO, Wolf indicated he hopes to bring this sense of community-minded policing to the diverse halls of MHS, where reactions and feelings toward police officers can vary from student to student.

“The difference in cultures can be a difference in how people approach police officers,” Wolf said. “The big thing is that I think some kids are more apt to avoid the situation of a police officer. Now, some kids are infatuated with police officers, but, I think about when I was a kid — if you just avoid them, they’re not gonna bother you — so I go out of my way to go talk to kids, make them feel that it’s okay to say ‘Hi’ to us.”

First placed in the school as an interim SRO in late September, Wolf took to the job and environment like a fish to water, and as Marshalltown Police Chief Michael Tupper explained, the fit could not have been any better.

“Logan’s a great school resource officer because he’s got exceptional communication skills and he’s a very personable young man,” said Tupper. “He’s been working in the school now for a few weeks, and he’s done a phenomenal job, and we’re just really excited to have him there.”

MCSD Superintendent Theron Schutte shared Tupper’s enthusiasm and is grateful to officially have Wolf onboard.

“We are very excited to have Officer Logan Wolf join our staff at Marshalltown High School as the new full-time School Resource Officer (SRO). In the short-time he has been working as an interim SRO, he has developed many positive relationships with students, families and staff which is a primary goal for the position,” Schutte said. “I’m confident that he will continue to provide the high degree of excellence that we’ve experienced with our ongoing partnership with the Marshalltown Police Department.”

Though his responsibilities as the SRO encompasses a wide array of tasks throughout the school such as interacting with students, serving as an informal mentor, and even law-related education, all of it is underscored by ensuring the safety and security of the students and school buildings against potential threats.

“When you get into law enforcement you have to understand that there are risks, and if a situation like that arises, I have a responsibility that I have to maintain and address the threat as it comes,” Wolf said. “We go through a lot of training and preparation, whether that be physical or mental, there’s a lot of stuff that we have to go through. You don’t rise up to the occasion. You train for the occasion.”

While he stays busy with his duties as a SRO for MHS during the day, Wolf moonlights as a coach for the MHS Esports team and youth wrestling, granting an opportunity for students to see him as more than simply a police officer in the district.

“It allows me more to interact with students on a level that’s not in the criminal field,” Wolf said. “I have a passion for coaching… helping them build those skills, and understand that it all translates over. I tell them all the time, anything that you do in life is done on paper first. By that, I mean, there’s a structure beneath everything that you’re doing.”

Wolf’s arrival into the school district has helped fulfill a longtime goal for the 31-year-old, something he hopes to build upon as he continues in his role as SRO.

“That was my goal: to be involved in the community. When you’re young, and you start out, you want to fight crime and do all that stuff,” Wolf said. “But on the other side of it, [it’s] building relationships and rapport and really focusing on how we can change some things.”

——

Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.