The Kansas City, Kan., Board of Education has named the city’s police chief to lead the new police department for the city’s public schools.

The school district said in a release Wednesday the board has selected Rick L. Armstrong as the first chief of the newly-formed police department for the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools. Armstrong will take over the schools post in February after retiring from the city’s police department.

The board voted last spring to go from campus security to forming its own police department and using sworn law enforcement officers, much like other large districts in the area, including Blue Valley, Shawnee Mission and Wichita.

Armstrong has served as chief of police for Kansas City, Kan., since 2010.