Perkins is new PBMS resource officer

When David Perkins left the corporate world, he found himself considering a second career in law enforcement or education.

Law enforcement won out, but now nearly a decade later, Perkins finds himself in the education arena as the school resource officer at the Poplar Bluff Middle School.

After retiring as the art director for Auto Zone in Memphis, Tennessee, and moving to Missouri, Perkins said, he wanted a “more portable career, something I could take to small-town America. There are not a whole lot of art director jobs (there), and I wanted to get back to small-town America.”

As the school resource officer at the Poplar Bluff Middle School, police Patrolman David Perkins is responsible for security of the entire facility, including the library, where he is pictured.DAR/Paul Davis

Perkins said he felt either law enforcement or education would be a good fit for that, and he chose law enforcement and now is in his eighth year at the Poplar Bluff Police Department.

Perkins began as a reserve officer and later worked as the bailiff for municipal court.

“Then, I became the part-time SRO at the college, at Three Rivers College,” Perkins explained.

When a full-time patrolman position became available, Perkins said, he took it and worked as a road officer for almost two years.

“Then, when this opening came (up), I applied for it,” Perkins said.

Although Perkins is dealing with an “entirely different group” of students now, “I really enjoy it,” he said. “The age group is between nine and 12 years old.

“That’s an age group you can really make an impact on their lives, a positive impact.”

As SRO, Perkins said, he has had to develop a trust with the students.

“They have to become acclimated to you,” he said. “The very first thing they want to know is what do you call them. I tell them, I am Officer Perkins.

“They all want to say ‘hi.’ They look up to firemen and policemen.”

Perkins said his primary duty is security for the entire facility, where an estimated 900 to 1,000 students are in attendance each day. Additional students, he said, are learning remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These children in school are some of our most vulnerable population in our entire community,” Perkins said. “In addition to that, I do traffic control in the morning and afternoon for dismissal and in take.”

Perkins said he also handles any “criminal functions” that happen on the property, “be that for an adult who comes onto the property or a juvenile that gets into some trouble and has to be referred to juvenile authorities.”

Perkins said he interacts with the students in the hallways.

“I go into the lunchroom every day; I let them in and out the doors for recess” since most of the doors are kept locked, Perkins said.

Occasionally, he said, a student will seek him out and “give me some intelligence on something going on in their life. I try to refer them to the correct place to get them some help.”

While Perkins’ enjoys being an SRO, he said, “you have to want to do something like an SRO job.

“It’s a little less active than being on the road. … Patrol is very adrenaline laced, and this is more of a laid-back atmosphere, but you can’t be lax about it.”

Perkins said he didn’t know he “always wanted” to be a police officer, but “once I determined that was where I wanted to go with my life after I stopped working in the corporate world, I look at it not so much as a career, but a vocation, like a preacher or teacher.

“Regardless of money, being a police officer, a law enforcement job, I thought would be a good fit for me, and it turns out it is.”