Parallel to the Rock River, on N. Jackson St. in Janesville, Chief of Police Chad Pearson was sworn in as head of city law enforcement in January of this year.
Before becoming chief, Pearson had 25 years with the city under his belt.
Those two decades-plus for Pearson have included stops as a lieutenant and deputy chief, and now, a rise to the department’s head.
But the past quarter century has also included personal changes for Pearson, including his marriage and conversion to Catholicism.
Today, Pearson, his wife, and their five children are parishioners of St. John Vianney Parish in Janesville, part of the St. Jane Frances de Chantal Pastorate.
Converting to Catholicism
Growing up the son of a second-generation law enforcement officer, Pearson shared that he grew up in a “predominantly Baptist” household and that it was the example his father gave him that helped him find “direction” in life.
His “ultimate hero,” Pearson described his father as the foundation he built upon after moving from rural Illinois to start his career in Wisconsin.
Beginning his career in Janesville, Pearson knew “I was seeking something, but I didn’t know what.”
It was also at this time that he met his wife when she was working in the city’s records department while he was beginning his career as an officer.
Over the ensuing months, the two cultivated a friendship, where “I knew she was a church singer,” Pearson said, but “that’s about all I knew,” he added.
As their friendship gradually turned into a committed relationship, Pearson reflected on a particular moment that pinpointed his first step into the Catholic Church.
That moment when “she outright asked me, ‘Would you consider going to church with me?’ was how I got started,” he said.
Attending St. William Church in Janesville, Pearson met then-Pastor Fr. John Auby who had “a level of authenticity to him that brought me in and made me curious to explore what I didn’t fully understand,” he said.
From there, with the support of his fiancé, her relatives, and Father Auby, Pearson found what he had been missing, that is, a “home” in the Catholic Church, joining RCIA during his engagement and, ultimately, being Baptized at 34 years old and entering the Church to receive the Sacraments.
Law enforcement
Now a practicing Catholic, father, and police chief, Pearson has found that “It wasn’t until I became Catholic and joined the Church where I actually saw the real fruit of my job, the purpose of the labor behind what I’m doing.”
“What I’m doing in law enforcement is following what God’s path is for me, and doing His will within the moral, ethical boundaries that are set forth,” Pearson said.
A part of that is, of course, protecting community members in Janesville and the surrounding area, but Pearson has also taken special interest in the wellbeing of officers under his direction, by encouraging the involvement of religious chaplains.
Pearson remembered that Fr. Drew Olson, former pastor of St. William, had been “one of the first chaplains from the Catholic Church [and that] he started to guide how our peer support and our chaplains operated”.
From Father Olson’s influence and Pearson’s faith, the Janesville police department now takes chaplaincy seriously, along with the mental wellbeing of its officers, and it’s been one of the most pointed ways Pearson has connected his faith and work in his short time as chief.
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