- Port Aransas Police Chief Scott Burroughs last day working in PAPD was Fri. June 28.
- He served as police chief in Port Aransas for 15 years.
- Community members say that they are going to miss him very much and that he left a lasting impact on the community.
- He plans to retire in the Fort Worth area with his wife Shirlene Burroughs.
After working in law enforcement for 41 years and serving as Port Aransas chief of police, Chief Scott Burroughs sounded his sirens and closed his patrol unit door for the last time on Fri. June 28
“One of my favorite things is to drive the streets and you look at the people, and everybody, I mean everybody is smiling. And you just don’t see that in a lot of places, but this is home for us, as we’ve been blessed that it’s home for us. But, it’s THE place, our place," Burroughs said.
Members of the community said that Chief Burroughs will leave a lasting impact on Port Aransas and that he will be missed as the police chief.
“Yes I think he left an impact on the police department here. More especially his leadership through Hurricane Harvey and through the pandemic. I know that couldn’t have been easy for him to navigate, but he did it with ease and made us feel safe," Heidi Shannon, a Port Aransas resident and Burroughs hairdresser said.
Burroughs is reluctant about leaving Port Aransas after he has grown to love it so much, but he knows that now is the time to move closer to his children and grandchildren in North Texas.
“My wife asked me the other day, are you sure you wanna do this? So, I told her no, I don’t want to do this. But, you’re asking the wrong question. You need to ask, do we need to do this? And the answer to that question is yes," Burroughs said.
Burroughs reflected on good times, and also hard times he experienced while serving as police chief of Port Aransas.
"In 2011, we worked a rollover collision on Highway 361 where there was six small children that were not seatbelted, or actually eight children that were not seatbelted. Six were ejected from the car and two were killed on the scene. Here we are 15 years later and it still haunts me," Burroughs said.
Chief Burroughs has high hopes for the future of the Port Aransas Police Department.
“We’re in good hands. We’ve made some really good hiring choices over the past 15 years... I don't think anybody's gonna miss a beat when I walk out the door," Burroughs said.
Current Police Lieutenant James Stokes will follow in Burroughs's footsteps and become the next police chief of Port Aransas. He is tentatively set to be sworn in by mid July.
Burroughs and his wife will be moving to the Fort Worth area in the coming weeks to live closer to family, but they say they won't be strangers to the city of Port Aransas that they love so much.
"At the end of it all, we've got plots at the cemetery here, so we will be back," Burroughs said.
His "troops," as he affectionately calls them and the people of Port Aransas said that they will miss his selfless nature and playful energy the most.
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