HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — More armed officers are coming to elementary schools in six districts across northern Harris County. Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman announced his office’s “guardian program” Monday afternoon.
“There’s no greater service than protecting the kids,” Herman said.
Herman unveiled a plan to use retired and former police officers from Precinct 4’s reserve deputy division as student resource officers at elementary schools. Those reserve deputies are certified peace officers with the same powers and training as any other deputy. The only difference: they’re unpaid volunteers.
“I had one gentleman call me and said, ‘Hey, I live in the Humble area, and I would love to work the school where my granddaughter goes,’” Herman said. “I said, ‘Sure.’”
The guardians will wear the Precinct 4 uniform and drive Precinct 4 vehicles but work under the umbrella of their assigned campus’ ISD police chief. Herman revealed Monday he quietly rolled out a test program in Tomball ISD in December 2022 after concerns from parents after high-profile school shootings and campus violence in other areas.
Herman said that after overwhelming support from Tomball ISD parents, along with buy-in from police chiefs of Klein, Humble, Cypress-Fairbanks, Aldine, and Spring ISDs during a meeting last week, he’s expanding the program to those additional five districts.
They’ll be joined by more than 200 of Herman’s regular deputy constables assigned to campuses across the six districts.
“The majority of the issues are at high schools and middle schools so that you kind of divert your resources,” Herman said. “But we’ve gotta think even though there are no problems, per see, at elementaries, when it comes to protecting our kids, we’ve gotta make them part of the equation.”
Herman said the guardian program will take about half of his reserve deputies away from his patrol division.
“It may increase my response time by one or two minutes on some calls, and some calls may hold a little bit longer, but we gotta prioritize our law enforcement,” Herman said. “We gotta think outside the box.”
Parents who have taken KHOU’s back-to-school survey have named school safety their top priority.
“I think it’s very good,” said Dennis Tejada, a junior at Spring High School, after hearing from KHOU about the guardian program Monday. “I like it a lot.”
“I’m completely fine with that,” said Rachel McCall, a parent of a Klein Cain High School senior. “That was their previous job, that’s what they're good at. If they retired from it, then that’s awesome, and they have a lot of knowledge, so I feel safe.”
Herman won’t discuss the total number of reserve deputies or schools benefiting from the guardian program for security reasons. He’s asking retired and honorably discharged police officers to apply. They’ll undergo background checks and get the training they need to work in schools.