AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — The fifth week of the Potter County Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy was completed and this week we heard from the Sheriff’s Criminal Intelligence Unit.

“You’re going to hear from our Sheriff’s Intelligence Unit. And it’s kind of what it is, is our highway interdiction, our search warrant team, our canine officer in the canine fire,” said Potter County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Krishauna McKinney. “And you’ll just get to learn a little bit about what they do in their everyday positions.”

McKinney said that the Sheriff’s Criminal Intelligence Unit works I-40, which is one of the biggest Highways, stretching from California to Florida. McKinney added that there are a lot of miles to cover, and the division is working hard to not only get drugs off the street but to also stop crimes like child smuggling.

“So, it is important to stop if you see something that is suspicious, or something that doesn’t seem normal, or people may be behaving. Like if you’re pulling beside them, and they’re looking through things,” said McKinney. “Or they’re acting weird. It’s good to pull them over. Because that’s how you might catch something you could catch a child being smuggled anything like that.”

She said not only does the division work the highways they are also called out to handle search warrants.

“So, the one thing is with them is they handle most of the serious calls. They also they you know take our BAT out which is our armored vehicle and that’s what they do the search warrants on our BAT. Some people don’t realize that it was bought with seized drug money,” said McKinney. “So, anything that they seize, the county gets it goes towards equipment like that, that helps us and taxpayers don’t have to pay for that.”

The Sheriff’s Criminal Intelligence Unit talked with us about a few things that catch their attention when patrolling highways. According to the division, certain objects, a driver’s speed, and officer-driver interaction are all signs that they look for.

Mckinney said she hopes that week 5 of the academy highlights to the community the work that the department is putting in to stop drugs from coming into the city.