RIFLE, COLO. - There are some people in the world that have a way of affecting everyone around them.

Whenever Dustin Marantino walks down the hallways at Rifle High School, people always seem to notice and change their behavior. It helps that he’s a police officer.

“Whenever I’m on campus, I try to leave my lights on so people are aware that I’m here,” he said. “But other times I like to park in various places so people aren’t aware. Usually I can see a different overall demeanor or sense of safety when people know I’m at the school.”

Marantino never envisioned becoming a cop who mainly dealt with school environments.

“That was also mostly an accident,” said Marantino. “I was offered a job here and I didn’t think I would like it, but then I rode along with an SRO in Glenwood and decided that I might enjoy it after all.”

Officer Marantino has found he most enjoys the ability to have one on one time with the students, providing more of an opportunity to have an impact.

“I do kind of miss all the patrol work though, like responding to in progress calls,” he admitted. “But I still get to do that during the summer.”

One of the interesting things about a high school, though, is sometimes it can manifest into a little town of its own.

“Whenever you have this many people in one building there’s a kind of unique life you wont see elsewhere,” said Marantino. “You can see that whenever people from so many different races, religions and socio-economic status are put in a situation and forced to work together.”

And one the of the most important aspects of his job is dealing with all that diversity in a fair way.

“There’s a theme of consistency in law enforcement,” he said. “There should be consistency in what we do and how we do it.”

There were some other things encouraged at the police academy Marantino attended.

“In the academy, they direct you to pursue hobbies that correspond with your job, like hunting,” he said. “So, like a lot of officers, I will go out and target shoot. On the other hand, we also like to leave the job behind when we go off duty.”

But when he’s on duty, Officer Marantino always manages to provide a sense of stability at Rifle High School.