Officer Von Hill

Law Enforcement Biography

Hello, my name is Von L. Hill; I'm your School Resource Officer. I'm an experienced and well trained law enforcement officer who started in the career field of law enforcement in December of 1992. Since that time I've served in a myriad of law enforcement functions. I'm a trained Communications Officer with experience in a 911 center as a call dispatcher. From the frying pan into the fire or at least I thought. next I was a certified law enforcement officer. I worked patrol, where I was a first responder to calls for service, made arrest, investigated crimes, worked traffic, used radar, and wrote traffic summons.

As a law enforcement officer investigating crimes, prosecuting violators, and/or criminals, I decided to enhance my investigative edge. So, I took, and completed training to be a Crime Scene Specialist. I was taught the proper techniques in crime scene recording, documentation, photography, evidence identification, preservation, collection and storage to include body secretions, hair, other DNA, impression evidence, and advance latent print recovery. Now since I gained all of this knowledge and was putting it to good use, I decided to acquire some training in the investigation of arson crimes. The International Association of Arson Investigators training seminar is where I ended up. I received a very valuable training in the techniques of investigating, profiling, collecting evidence of, and prosecuting arson crimes. After applying all of what I learned to better investigate the crimes that where occurring in my community, and aid with relief of the caseload that our investigators had, I was asked by other agencies to aid in the investigation of some of their criminal activities. So, I agreed to help, and was now doing undercover purchases of narcotics, yes, a part of a Narcotics Unit. I was able to aid in the successful prosecution of about 100 different drug cases over this two year period. My continuing momentum, lead me to aid in many search warrant raids. Where most of the time, I was the officer who gained entry for the team, most of that time by force. I enjoyed every minute of the experiences even though they were very dangerous.

Then came the turning point. What else can I do? Well I did on an average spend at least one or two days a week visiting the local schools, and having lunch with the little ones, patrolling their halls from time to time. We didn't have SROs (School Resource Officers) at this point, but we did have a DARE officer who spent a lot of time teaching curriculum, and interacting with the children. The DARE officer position became available, and I decided to get that training. When, I returned from my training I took over the DARE program for my community, and decided that it was going to be the best program around. I rewrote the budget for the funding of my program and was awarded close to $20,000. I couldn't believe it but I put it immediately to use. If they were that serious to allot me the dollar figure I asked for, to the penny, I was not going to let them down. My own and my program's popularity grew greatly. I taught an average of six classes a day from 5th grade students to pre-kindergarten every school day of the week. This didn't even include the community request that I would fulfill after school and on the weekends. I also took on the responsibility of being the department Training Officer. I was promoted to the rank of Corporal and placed in charge of Crime Prevention and was a supervisor.

Working with the DARE program was very interesting, and rewarding, but I wanted more. So, I decide to become trained as a General Instructor for the Department of Criminal Justice Services to be able to cross over into some instruction for law enforcement, and other criminal justice professionals. I also received additional training so that I could expand the DARE program to the Middle school. The DARE middle school program was a success from the very start, and the majority of those students had already been through the elementary core component that I had taught. This made it easy for those students to reconnect with the curriculum and for me to reconnect with them. Now, with a new and bigger audience, I was teaching approximately 325 children a week in the core DARE curriculum and an additional 120 children in other curriculum. During this time I was able to become more aware of the different types of information that would be an asset to the school system and me as an officer working in the schools.

I attended the training necessary to become certified as a School Resource Officer, so that I could better supervise the current position at the middle and high schools. At this point the Eastern Regional Training Center, a training agency for DARE America, comprised of the Virginia State Police and the Department of Education requested that I join its training staff. I took the offer and went for training to be a Mentor DARE Instructor and began teaching law enforcement officers, teachers, and other educators from all over the east coast. I taught how to present educational curriculum and how to process curriculum objectives, and goals. I am also trained as an Alcohol Law enforcement specialist, trained to identify drugs and drug cultures in schools and trained in Crisis Management for schools: Readiness, Response, and Recovery, by the Department Criminal Justice Services. I've experienced the most enjoyment in my career, as a law-related educator, working with children and adults.

I have utilized all of this knowledge to be the best resource that I can be, and now Fluvanna County gets the opportunity to benefit from the same knowledge, as I effectively carry out the functioning of the School Resource Officer for Fluvanna Co. Public Schools.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to working with you. My office is located at the Fluvanna County High School, and I can be reached there via phone (434) 589-3666 ext. 1615, or email at vhill@mail.fluco.org.

Von L. Hill