The Brown County Sheriff’s Office issued the following information Friday morning:

The Brown County Sheriff’s Office, Blanket ISD, Brookesmith ISD, May ISD, and Zephyr ISD would like to announce the appointment of Brown County’s first rural School Resource Officer, Deputy Scotty Burke.

Recently the sheriff’s office has worked in conjunction with the 4 rural school districts to start a School Resource Officer position, which was approved by the Brown County Commissioners back in September.

Deputy Burke has 26 years of law enforcement experience and 10 of those years were spent working as a School Resource Officer through the Brownwood Police Department for the Brownwood Independent School District.

Deputy Burke brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this new endeavor, and we know the children, parents, teachers, and staff of the 4 schools will see the passion he has to work with all the children as a School Resource Officer. You will start seeing Deputy Burke on Blanket, Brookesmith, May, and Zephyr campuses starting October 4, 2022.

A school resource officer (SRO) is a full-time law enforcement officer with sworn law enforcement authority, trained in school-based policing and crisis response, assigned by the employing law enforcement agency to work with the school using community-oriented policing concepts.

Please don’t hesitate to stop by and say hello to Deputy Burke as you see him on your campuses, he looks forward to meeting you.