A dozen student leaders from Twin Rivers Unified School District campuses peeked into empty interrogation rooms during a tour of the district's police department Friday.

The teens chatted excitedly, mostly unaware of a second group at the police department that was conducting an inventory review inside the force's armory room as part of a district investigation into possible misconduct.

The operational review and the student tour represent ways Twin Rivers Unified officials said the district is addressing wide-ranging allegations at the embattled police department and is attempting to move forward.

"This department is making a real effort to reconnect with its central mission and is actively working to correct some of the things that need correcting," said Scott LaCosse, the newly appointed Twin Rivers acting chief and former Sacramento Police Department captain.

Twin Rivers' police force has been embroiled in months of controversy and is the subject of wide-ranging investigations by federal and local agencies into allegations of corruption, theft of district resources and mishandling of property, sources told The Bee last week.

District lawyers hired former FBI agent James Maddock to conduct an internal review of its police force. The current focus of that investigation covers the time Chief Christopher Breck led the department, said Trinette Marquis, district spokeswoman.

The district placed Breck on paid administrative leave in November. Lt. Trang To was named acting chief, but he stepped down last week. Marquis said To would work part time with the department, focusing on community relations.

Twin Rivers tapped LaCosse, 50, to lead the police department weeks after he retired from the Sacramento Police Department. Twin Rivers also recently brought in former Sacramento County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Sales as a lieutenant for its force.

"The officers need leadership and guidance," LaCosse said Friday. "They've gotten pounded in the media and with the community. They are demoralized."

LaCosse said his intent is to help the department on a short-term basis so it can move forward. District Superintendent Frank Porter said there eventually will be a "broad scale" search for a new chief and lieutenant.

In the meantime, LaCosse said, it's important to reach out to students, who are seeing more of an officer presence on campuses as the department shifts its focus back to schools.

"Generally, kids are scared of police," said Tai Tran, the class president of Pioneer school, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in Foothill Farms.

Added Aleks Avramova of Foothill High School, "When you learn what they are like, they aren't intimidating anymore."

Before the police department tour, a larger group of student leaders from 20 schools met LaCosse, who told them about his hopes for the department and fielded their questions.

One student asked him what was the most stressful thing he has gone through as a police officer.

LaCosse told them the biggest stresses have been during administrative assignments, such as having to put an officer on leave.

He spoke about his time working with a police dog and how he got started with the Sacramento Police Department in 1980 through a community service officer program when he was 18 years old.

"These are the opportunities where you can interact with students so they know you don't have horns and a tail," LaCosse said. "Hopefully, they share that with their friends and it opens lines of communication with the kids on campuses."

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Call The Bee's Melody Gutierrez, (916) 326-5521. Follow her on Twitter @MelodyGutierrez.

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