In fact, 57% of Pearland’s FY 2020-21 general fund expenditures is allocated to the Pearland Public Safety Department, which includes the police department. This is about the same amount of funding allocated in the city’s 2019-20 budget; public safety funding made up 57% of the city’s budget last year as well. For FY 2020-21, the city is hiring two new officers and buying new vehicles.
“Our citizens place public safety in their top priority,” said Assistant City Manager Ron Fraser, who was recently promoted from assistant chief of police.
Some cities, such as Austin, recently voted to reduce police department funding, a movement spurred after the death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement in May. However, Pearland’s discussions with the NAACP and residents show they want better law enforcement, not less money allocated toward safety, Fraser said.
“A lot of cities are replacing law enforcement in times that people want more communications,” Fraser said. “That is clear with our conversations with the NAACP. We added more officers, and that will help in that regard.”
Eugene Howard, the president of the Brazoria County chapter of the NAACP, echoed Fraser’s comments that less law enforcement is not the answer.
“The NAACP has never been about defunding the police,” Howard said. “We don’t want to defund; we want to reimagine.”
The NAACP published the Change the World-Texas Restorative Criminal Justice Plan, which focuses on policy and cultural changes within law enforcement to keep the Black community safe, according to a press release on the topic. So far, Pearland, West Columbia and Angleton adopted the plan in October, Howard said.
“I am applauding the Pearland Police Department,” Howard said. “They have done more than engage; they have actually collaborated.”
One of the focuses of the plan is recruitment and law-enforcement training. It is policies, not the amount of money invested into the department, the NAACP is concerned with, Howard said.
The new officers will be assigned to the Pearland Town Center, according to a city agenda document. Because of the data-driven approach the police department uses to target car accidents, they know a lot of accidents occur in this area of town, Fraser said. So far, the program has driven down the the rate of accidents, especially near Hwy. 288, Fraser said.
While residents value public safety highly, they also want to see the city improve its response time, which the data-driven approach has helped the city do, Fraser said. “In the areas that we have seen accident numbers go up in the city, they have gone up but in a lower rate in the west side of town, which is great because of Hwy. 288,” Fraser said.
