Houston car dealership donates vehicle for Calhoun County SRO Program

Steve Eaton of Eaton Chevrolet, Buick, GMC saw a social media post from the sheriff about the need for vehicles

HOUSTON, MISS, (WCBI) – The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office has a boost for its School Resource Officer program.

Just last week as a school resource officer was driving from Vardaman to Pittsboro, his vehicle, a backup vehicle in the sheriff’s fleet, broke down.

“Those are the vehicles that have 200,000 miles on them, the second day on the job, one broke down and had to have it towed in,” said Calhoun County Sheriff Greg Pollan.

The three newly hired school resource officers, or SROs, for Calhoun County Schools are using older vehicles in the fleet.  But today, Steve Eaton, of Eaton Chevrolet, Buick, GMC in Houston, presented Calhoun County Sheriff Greg Pollan with this Dodge Charger police edition.

Eaton saw a social media post by Sheriff Pollan talking about the need for vehicles for the SROs.

“We are the local dealer, what better way to support your local officers and school system, we got together and decided we needed to furnish them a vehicle and that’s what we’re doing,” Eaton said.

In local governments, whether it is county or city, there’s never enough money to go around, that’s why it’s vital to have private businesses step in and help meet those needs.

“I went to the board who was supportive, the school board has been phenomenal, Doctor Langford has been phenomenal, this is a collaboration between four entities who came together to get this done and it shows what can be done when you work together,” Sheriff Pollan said.

Calhoun County’s SROs say knowing they have the community’s support makes their jobs easier as they work to have a positive influence on young people.

“Especially in elementary and middle school, because those kids are impressionable at that age, you don’t want them to be scared of the police, we go in and sit down and eat with them, tell them to come talk to us,” said SRO Jimmy Wiygul.

“We are grateful they are stepping out and giving us this car, being supportive of law enforcement in general,” said SRO Manuel Mata.

Sheriff Pollan is looking for two more vehicles for the district SROs.

Sheriff Pollan hopes to have the SRO car striped and painted within two weeks so it can be used by the Vardaman School Resource Officer.

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