Students and staff at Apache Junction High School, 2525 S. Ironwood Drive, will be seeing more police officers in the days and weeks to come.

The school has set aside office space to be used by Apache Junction Police Department as a satellite substation, according to a release.

"AJPD officers will be in and out of the high school, writing a report, interacting with students and staff or just grabbing a cup of coffee," the release states.

AJPD and the Apache Junction Unified School District have had a cooperative relationship for many years and have continued to work  together to present AJUSD students with drug-prevention education though the DARE program.

"Now, the addition of this substation will increase visibility of police officers at the high school and will hopefully contribute to building more positive relationships between the officers and the youth of our community," the release states.

“In this post-Columbine/Sandy Hook era, school safety continues to be paramount to AJPD and AJUSD," AJPD Chief Thomas Kelly said in the release.

"The partnership that we have had with AJUSD has always been outstanding; this is just one more step toward strengthening that relationship and building a safer aenvironment for staff and students alike," he said.