Mansfield Senior High Principal Brad Callender talks with Mansfield Police Department officers Dominga Chatman and Todd Vanausdle.
A 14-year veteran of the Mansfield Police Department is the new resource officer at Mansfield Senior High School and Mansfield Middle School.
Dominga Chatman began her new duties this week. She succeeds Todd Vanausdle, resource officer for the last four years, who will assume an investigative role within the police department.
“Keeping an open relationship with students and staff probably is the most important part of this job. Officer Vanausdle and Officer (Chuck) Norris laid the foundation for that,” Chatman said.
Norris, a resource officer and football coach at Senior High, died in January 2010.
Chatman, whose 13 years as a patrol officer spanned all three shifts, is no stranger to working with young people. She has been involved with youth through Friendly House, the Girls Club and, for the last year, the police department’s community policing outreach.
“Community policing is working directly with the community,” Chatman said. “Patrol officers routinely respond to call to call to call. Community policing works to build relationships and resolve problems.
“For example, if patrol officers are called repeatedly to the same location, we try to determine what the issues are and help to resolve them. Community policing also works with Neighborhood Watch groups and at Friendly House after school.”
Vanausdle, a 16-year police department veteran, said Chatman is “a perfect fit” for her new role in the schools.
“I’ve known Officer Chapman since she joined the department and I’ve worked with her on patrol,” he said. “I know she will do an excellent job
“As resource officers, our approach couldn’t be more opposite to what many people think,” he said. “We’re not always looking to find a student who is doing something wrong. Sometimes we have to deal with that, but this job is all about building connections with kids. It’s about mentoring kids, letting them know we’re here to keep them safe and help them.”
Chatman, a Mansfield resident since 1992, said the resource officer role offers a different type of community policing.
“I will get to work with young people every day. I am looking forward to that opportunity,” she said.
For Vanausdle, leaving Senior High and the middle school is bittersweet.
“It’s the right time for me to make this change in my career,” he said. “But I really will miss the kids and the staff.”