CO:member Spotlight: Rusty Ballentine

“It's really really difficult to try to quantify the experience and support I’ve had at theCO,” says Rusty Ballentine, an officer and active bomb technician for the Jackson Police Department. “It's one thing to have someone smile at you and talk to you about your day, but it's a whole other thing to walk in, have this technologically-advanced equipment in front of you, and have these guys explain and catch you up within minutes on what they've been doing for years.” 

For Ballentine, his journey at theCO began while working to fight Internet crimes against children with the police department, and he says theCO was generous in offering him and his partners the workspace to come in and work on the computers. While there, he started to notice the makerspace and yearned to learn more about the machines, but it wasn’t until he began working as a technician for the Jackson bomb unit that he finally made his way to the makerspace to build something of his own. 

“When I got involved in the bomb unit, I realized it was challenging because the bomb unit itself doesn't have a budget, so we rely on grants and generosity,” Ballentine says. “It causes us to be creative in some of the things we do because, unfortunately, a lot of the equipment that is commercially sold for police departments, and especially bomb units, are very expensive, so I approached theCO about possibly utilizing the 3D printer.”

He says theCO staff was so receptive to him and welcomed, so while Ballentine is newer to the makerspace and says that he still has much to learn, he has seen theCO and theCO staff partner alongside him and the police department to help create important equipment for their team.  

“The first time I used the 3D printer, it blew my mind,” Ballentine says. “You leave, looking at an empty space, and come back at the end of the print, seeing that two-dimensional item on the computer screen now sitting in front of you to pick up. I was just absolutely floored.” 

From building evidence markers to modifying the robots within the bomb unit and much more, Ballentine has seen the immense benefit of having a local space for makers to be creative and to build equipment that can ultimately better the community in numerous ways.  

“I appreciate you all,” Ballentine says to me. “If tomorrow, I would no longer be able to be a member of theCO, I know I would’ve walked away having gained so much.”