Welcome to our series on alums from UHD's College of Public Service's Criminal Justice program who have had a significant impact on the Houston community and beyond.
When Constable Alan Rosen, Harris County Precint 1, graduated from the UHD's Police Academy, his goal was to practice criminal law. “What better way to learn the system than to work within the system and gain an understanding of its inner workings,” said Rosen.
That was the plan, at least. The UHD alum instead decided to found and run his own business, a specialty chemical firm. It wasn’t long, however, until Rosen decided to follow in his family’s footsteps and pursue politics. Rosen sold his company and after campaigning in 2012, was elected and took office in 2013, where he quickly made a name for himself instituting law enforcement ethics programming for every employee. In January, he starts his fourth term in office.
Since then, Constable Rosen has compiled an extensive list of accomplishments. The agency is the first in Harris County to deploy body cameras for officers, was awarded the Law Enforcement Agency of the year award three years in a row by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and, most recently, won the prestigious 2023 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. At the time, it had only been given to 320 recipients. Most recently, Rosen played an instrumental role in developing UHD’s new Criminal Justice Data Center as part of the 1801 @ Main initiative.
“We have a social service bend to the work that we do here," Rosen said. "It's not part of our core mission, but I sincerely believe in investing in people, and I believe in investing in people who are in need.”