Pearland SRO at PACE expands role with mentoring classes, drills and streamlined juvenile directives

Officer Stephen Brown, a school resource officer with the Pearland Police Department assigned to the PACE Center, described on the Pearland ISD "Building Blocks" podcast how his work combines campus safety duties with mentorship programs aimed at preventing student misconduct.

"I wanna come to work and be bored. I don't actually wanna do the law enforcement side of my job at work," Brown said. "I wanna come to work and walk the hallways and sit in on classes." The remark summarized his goal to reduce arrests by building relationships and offering students alternatives to punitive responses.

Superintendent Mr. Berger, host of the podcast, framed the SRO program as a formal partnership between the district and the city: "We have a partnership in MOU," he said, referencing the memorandum of understanding that places city police officers on district campuses. Brown and Berger said SROs perform both security tasks — drills, door audits and incident response — and broader campus roles such as attending administrative team (AT) meetings and delivering classroom content.

Brown, who described…