Building It Better Crowley ISD has a newly hired police chief building a new culture from the ground up Written by Megan Middleton Building a police department from scratch is no small task, but Le’Shai Maston has hit the ground running since he was hired in September as Crowley ISD’s first police chief. Forming a department takes telecommunications equipment, uniforms, guns, vehicles, licensing and, of course, the best officers. But what Maston, a 20-year Dallas Police veteran and former NFL running back, is most excited about building in Crowley ISD is meaningful relationships with students and families. “When everything is done, the most important thing I’m looking forward to is getting to know the students, interacting every day and starting relationships with them,” Maston said, adding that he wants to make sure students know that they can be anybody. “They have dreams, and those dreams can be accomplished.” Once his team is in place, he plans for officers to volunteer in the community and even greet parents and students at schools — opening car doors and, hopefully, young hearts and minds to see police in a more positive light. Growing up in south Dallas, Maston used to walk the longer route home to avoid interacting with a police officer patrolling his street. But those feelings of distrust and discomfort are not a part of the story he wants for Crowley ISD. As the district builds its first police department, he said it also gets to shape how policing can look. “We get to write our own narrative,” he said. “We get to tell our own story about what policing can be. The nation can have whatever narrative they want, but we get to write our own, and we’ll be better.” CREATING A DEPARTMENT Crowley ISD trustees voted in April to begin forming a school district police department. As part of a phasein plan, the district is hiring officers while maintaining agreements for school resource officers with other law enforcement departments over the next two budget years. A growing number of school districts across Texas and the nation are creating their own police departments. With a district police department, CISD will have control over hiring officers with the qualities, training and experience that support the district’s goals and values. “We felt that if we could have the police department connected to Crowley ISD, we could have more authority and more flexibility with the services,” Superintendent Dr. Michael McFarland said. “It was way more efficient for us to have our own department as opposed to having 10 CROWLEY ISD CONNECTIONS | Spring 2021
a relationship with three different agencies.” In September, the district conducted a series of Community Conversations with students, staff and community members about officers serving in schools. Student panelists spoke about their desire to build strong relationships with the officers. After a nationwide search, McFarland said he believes Maston is the right person to build the district’s department. McFarland described Maston, who also worked as a police chief in Lancaster ISD, as a dependable person with a positive outlook who strives for excellence and can deescalate high-stress situations quickly. “I think that’s very important with the role of an officer — to be able to de-escalate, to be able to treat people as human regardless of how they present themselves to you,” he said.
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I believe we have the guy that has the perfect combination of being able to connect and relate to our students but who also has a great command of the law and how the law is designed to help and to support us.
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Dr. Michael D. McFarland Crowley ISD Superintendent
