Prescott School Resource Officer (SRO) Beau Jacobson is a face everyone at Prescott High School has come to know. His desk sits right inside of the main entrance, and students often stop by for a piece of candy or simply to talk.

The Prescott SRO program has been around since 2017. It took some time to get off its feet, with Lieutenant Kristopher Stewart taking on the role after a few years; while he said the program was seen as a positive, the one complaint was that he could not spend enough time at the school due to his other duties.

Then came Jacobson, an officer that is now seen as the perfect fit for the role. He started off doing security at St. John’s in Minnesota while he went to school, eventually spending time with the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office and then working in North Dakota for almost four years. He spent two years on patrol before becoming an SRO, a job that he fell in love with quickly. He moved back to the area to work for another agency when he saw Prescott was looking to ramp up its SRO program. Now, Jacobson has been the SRO at Prescott for over three years, and it has been nothing but a success for both the school and the department.

Jacobson helps keep the school safe, teaches about law enforcement and substance use, mentors four students interested in law enforcement careers, leads safety drills and much, much more.

“You can have the role, and if you get the wrong person in a role, it’s not effective,” PHS Principal Josh Fiege said. “If you get the right person in a role, really great things can happen, and he’s the right person for this role.”

The mentorship program is something Jacobson cherishes most. In addition, the district works with Chippewa Valley Technical College to provide students with a chance to become EMT certified in high school.

“They get to experience what it’s like inside of a police car, what it’s like driving around all the different gadgets that are inside of the police car,” Jacobson said of the mentorship program. “They kind of get a little bit more of a hands-on experience than just me sitting and talking to them all the time.”

Jacobson recently read a book to share with the elementary school why police are in the school.

“Especially at that age, police are not in the schools to get you in trouble or to have you upset. We’re here to make sure you’re safe,” Jacobson said.

What makes Jacobson most special, though, is his ability to both protect the school while building relationships with the students. If you stop by the school, you may see him on a Homecoming float, scooting around the cafeteria in an all-school Mario Kart activity or taking his mentorship students for a ride along.

“He’s making kids feel comfortable with people in uniform, with police officers,” Fiege said. “What he’s provided to us is just another safe adult that kids feel like they can go to in the school.”

Stewart said Jacobson brings law enforcement expertise, training and consistent messaging, while also providing law enforcement resources at a moment’s notice.

“People will look at Prescott like Prescott is a small district, so we don’t have a lot of problems. We do. We’re not unique. We have the same issues that larger schools have,” Stewart said. “We have issues of bullying, and fighting, and sextortion and harassment.”

“Unfortunately, in this day and age, I think if you read the news or you watch the news, you see there are a lot of really unfortunate things that can happen in any organization, and schools seems to be one of those areas where we want to have the most amount of safety,” Fiege said.

When the school was holding a safety training drill, Jacobson had three officers in attendance at the drop of a hat.

“If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have that ability,” Fiege said.

It’s not just school safety, though. Jacobson thinks of himself as a leader and a counselor.

“You’re not just a cop, you’re a counselor, you’re a coach, you’re a parent, you’re a teacher. You get to wear all these different hats,” Jacobson said. “I think it’s the best job in law enforcement that you can have. It’s fun, it’s challenging, no two days are the same.”

It took a while for Jacobson to build the relationships. When he first got to Prescott, he said people were avoidant of talking casually to a police officer in the school. Now, he has built that comfortability.

“I have some kids that maybe wouldn’t talk to me the first year that I was even in this building because, quite frankly, they had no idea who I was,” Jacobson said. “Now it’s more comfortable.”

He enjoys getting to know each student individually, sitting at the lunch tables and talking to people about how things are going. Another reason Stewart said it is valuable to have one officer at the school opposed to bringing in officers as needed is the equal treatment of students. With 11 officers at the department, naturally each person will handle a situation slightly differently, as everyone is human.

“We have 11 officers here, and you know as well as I do, you have 11 people, you have 11 different personalities, 11 different styles, 11 different attitudes. That’s what makes us unique, that’s what makes us beautiful as people,” Stewart said. “In the schools, you can’t have that wavering discretion. If you want to lose trust, treat one student differently from the next student.”

Both Stewart and Fiege said Jacobson treats every student equally, no matter their history, no matter who they are and no matter where they’re from.

“If you made a mistake in school that I had to get involved with or when you made a mistake outside of school where law enforcement had to get involved, just them knowing that I’m still here for you, I’m going to be here for you when you graduate, I’m still here for you when you’re an adult,” Jacobson said. “I don’t hold grudges, I don’t think of you any less as a person because you’ve made a mistake.”

What makes it all worth his time is a student coming up to him around Prescott just because they want to have a conversation. Stewart said Jacobson is the kind of guy to be present at all types of school events, making sure to congratulate students for a job well done each and every time.

“I honestly love it when I’m at a sporting event, or a play, or even at Kwik Trip or even when I’m not in uniform somewhere and kids come up and say hi to me,” Jacobson said. “That helps me reconfirm that what I’m doing is making a difference.”

Stewart said the program was already making positive steps, but Jacobson taking over was a major positive. The title of police officer can come with built-in mental intimidation to most people. To have one officer who people see every single day, it can help put some of that to rest.

“There is an inherent intimidation when you see an officer in a uniform. I’ve been a police officer for over 30 years, and when I drive down the road, I see a cop car on the side of the road, my first thing is look at my speed, pull my foot off the gas,” Stewart said. “I even have that initial response when I see a police officer, and it’s my field. So, it’s extremely understandable that the general public, there’s going to be some trepidation and reservation.”

Within any program, there will always be an evaluation of whether its value matches the cost that comes with it. In this instance, Stewart said both parties have seen tons of benefits.

Jacobson coordinates National Night Out with the school, did a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the school, attends events, brings safety and is a visible face for students to trust and rely on. His connections have helped solve many cases in the department as well.

“At the end of your career, very few of us can look back and say they had a meaningful impact and really changed something,” Stewart said.

Jacobson, though, his impact has made a difference.