Cabrillo High School shop students build Cop Cart

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputy assigned to Cabrillo High School as School Resource Officer now has greater mobility to keep the campus safe, thanks to the work of students.

A campus Cop Cart was designed and built by students in Cabrillo High’s auto shop, the students modifying a former golf cart and turned it into a battery-powered public safety vehicle complete with flashing lights and a very loud horn.

“It just gives me the ability to interact with the students on a quicker basis”, said School Resource Officer Deputy Dennis Thomas, “if I need to get from one side of the campus to the other, it gives me that ability to get there in a quick fashion.”

“I think it’s amazing” said Cabrillo High senior Tyler Burch who worked on the Cop Cart, “it was a great opportunity, it was more like we came together and we were like let’s do this.”

“I think it’s awesome, my own opinion, I think it’s amazing”, added Cabrillo High junior Anthony Barajas who also worked on the Cop Cart in auto shop, “put a lot of time and effort into it and I think all of us did a good a job.”

The Cop Cart is the result of the Cabrillo High auto shop students showing school pride, hard work and determination to do something constructive for the greater good of their campus community.

“Anytime we can take young people, young students and get them interacting with law enforcement on a positive note, we succeed”, Deputy Thomas said.