The first bell of the new school year has rung across Lexington County. New backpacks, new teachers, new schedules — and in the hallways, some new faces wearing a badge. One of them belongs to School Resource Officer Hannah Barr, and for her, those hallways are closer to home than most: her own children are students in the very district she’s now serving.
This school year, Barr steps into a new role as a school resource officer — a sworn deputy of the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department whose beat isn’t a stretch of highway, but a school: its students, staff and the families behind them. Her road to that hallway is a story about community; and it starts on the other side of the radio.
The other side of the radio
Before the badge, there was a headset. Barr began her public safety career in 2018 as a dispatcher, the calm voice guiding deputies to the calls she couldn’t yet run herself.
“I absolutely loved dispatching — I would go back dispatching — but I’ve grown to love law enforcement more. I didn’t realize how much more I would love it on this side than on that side of the radio.”
In September 2025 she joined the Sheriff’s Department, graduated from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in January and went straight to patrol answering calls across the county she was born and raised in.
‘Not in my cards’
If you ask her whether she always planned to work in schools, she’s honest: no.
“Initially, I didn’t think being an SRO was in my cards. But after learning more about being an SRO and being around the SROs this past summer and spring break, I quickly learned that it would fit better with my family and my home life. My children are in the district as students themselves.”
That’s the part that makes this move different. When the bell rings, SRO Barr won’t just be watching over Lexington County’s students, she’ll be one of the parents in the pickup line too.
What the road taught her
Her patrol duties provided a crash course in the skill every SRO leans on most: connection.
“As a deputy on the road, you don’t have a choice but to talk to people. You get out on these calls on your own, you’re face-to-face and you have to build rapport very easily. Sometimes it’s a little harder to build that with children, because they’re looking at you in a different light — but I’ve been to calls with children involved and that’s definitely going to help me out a lot.”
She’ll miss the road, and she doesn’t pretend otherwise. The 10-plus people she meets every shift, the calls, the getting out there. But the connections aren’t stopping. They’re just moving indoors.
A goal for the new school year
Barr’s goal for year one isn’t complicated and that’s what makes it good.
“At the end of the day, they’re going to be our future. Having a connection with these students early on as a police officer shows them we’re here to help.”
It’s the same philosophy behind programs across the department, from the Community Action Team to National Night Out — where deputies and the neighbors they serve connect face-to-face.
‘Just start’
Not even a year separates Barr from her own first step into law enforcement. So her advice for anyone weighing the same move, SRO in the cards or not, comes fresh:
“Just start. The hardest part is starting. There are always going to be pros and cons and people coming at you from different directions, but until you’re in it yourself, you won’t be able to make that true decision. Just start and figure out if it’s for you.”
If that sounds like you, the department is hiring. You can explore openings at joinLCSD.com. Students curious about the career can start even earlier through the Law Enforcement Explorers Program.
This school year, SRO Barr begins her next chapter in the county where her story started — from the dispatch desk, to the patrol car, to the hallway. Different beat, same mission: showing up for the community she grew up in and for the students who are its future.