Clarksville, TN – Kameron Covington comes from a family of law enforcement professionals, and now he’s continuing the tradition as the Austin Peay State University Police Department’s newest officer.
Officer Covington was sworn in on April 11th at the Browning Administration Building and said he wants to build positive relationships across campus while helping the community.
“I grew up here half my life, I went to Austin Peay State University and I remember coming to lots of football and basketball games,” he said. “I graduated in the Dunn Center, and my sister and cousins were students here, so this is my community … these are people I’ve known since I was a child, and these are people I want to protect.”
Covington attended APSU from 2017-19, initially studying physical therapy before switching to health care management. He didn’t originally plan to become an officer, but an internship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center inspired him to pursue a career in security and law enforcement.
“Before all this I was working as a janitor in the hospital while interning to be a physical therapy assistant,” he said. “I felt like the officers there had a really good team, and at the same time I had a buddy of mine who worked [at Austin Peay] and I saw him become an officer. We grew up together, and it seemed like something I could do too, since I have that sense of wanting to help people, serve and protect.”
After spending a few years as a security guard at Vanderbilt, Covington took a job at Austin Peay and began working toward the next step in his career.
“When I started here as a security guard, I automatically knew I wanted to be an officer,” he said. “So the first thing I did was start observing and learning from the officers that were here … as on officer, you have to consider your own safety, but you have to consider the safety of others a lot more because when something does happen, everybody’s looking at you.”
Covington said he enjoys being back on campus, noting that his time as a student at APSU prepared him to take on new challenges and responsibilities.
“College is a different beast, and coming from high school you have a lot more responsibility,” he said. “You have to develop communication skills so you can talk to people and present for class, build connections with people you just met and find a balance between waking up for something at 8:00am and having stuff to do after class.”
As a campus police officer, Covington aims to use those communication skills to serve as a positive presence within the community.
“I want people to see my face and think, ‘if something happens to me, that’s the guy I want to be turning on those blue lights and coming up,’” he said. “Policing is scary right now, but I want people to look at me and not see me as a gun and a badge – I want them to see me as a person that will talk to them and help them.”
