NC campus officers, Peter Edgar and Brandon Cortolano, act as safeguards for the community by maintaining constant security and safety on school grounds. They enjoy building bonds with students and staff while on duty.
“What I love the most about the community so far is speaking to the students and getting to know them. Our number one priority is the safety of all the staff and students here. So [Cortolano] and I walk the halls, interact with the students and get to know them, and that’s the best part,” Edgar said.
Edgar spent 25 years at a police agency outside of Chicago, and he then enrolled in the Chicago Police Academy in 1997. While participating in basic training, he endured physical training, learned required laws and basic defensive tactics and received qualifications with pistols. He later retired from the force in 2022. After retiring, the Cobb County police force, he encouraged his family to move down to Georgia. December 2024, Edgar received the position of campus officer at NC after eagerly waiting.
Cortolano underwent the Georgia Public Safety Training Center (GPSTC) police academy in Austell, Georgia, in 2009 and endured similar training, including learning state law, local ordinances, defensive tactics training, firearms training and how to operate emergency vehicles. After completing the police academy, he worked as a campus officer at Kennesaw State University (KSU) until 2021. He then moved to the Cobb County school district in 2023 and applied as a campus officer. He noticed that as a high school officer, he could build relationships and interact with students further than he could while he worked as a university cop.
“I noticed that while working as a university campus officer prior to working here, it required being a lot more engaging. In the university setting, the campus was very big compared to a high school campus, where the size is a lot more condensed. I feel like this is a much better fit coming over into the school setting because it’s one building and there are so many kids here to interact with, where we want to talk to everyone and build that relationship,” Cortolano said.
Though maintaining the role as a campus officer proves challenging, campus security receives the same responsibilities as a city police officer does, except they operate in a limited jurisdiction. This means that, depending on the school district, their level of authority remains insufficient because they can only enforce laws in their assigned territory.
Campus officers also focus on remaining lenient to disciplinary action rather than pursuing legal action on the student that may lead to offense on the student’s criminal record. They also conduct traffic stops on or off campus and regulate road circulation during school hours.
“With our job, it’s easy to become frustrated, so with wanting to become an officer in general, you have to learn to control your emotions. So, with every call we go on, we have to become the middleman and try to figure out what’s going on and not take sides. With the negative stigma that’s being put on law enforcement, we only enforce the rules that our government has approved, so our job is to only correct when people have done something wrong,” Edgar said.
Police officers often face stereotypical portrayals due to an assumption of violent situations from the past. These assumptions stem from the stigma of the numerous media portrayals of police officers when conducting traffic stops.
Both Edgar and Cortolano encourage other students who wish to pursue the law enforcement pathway to do what best fits them. When enrolling in the police academy, a high school diploma becomes a requirement before registering. Nevertheless, the two advise whoever wishes to reach higher ranks to earn their bachelor’s or master’s degree in criminal justice.
