Prosper names Celina assistant chief Brent Brown as next police chief

Prosper is turning to a police chief who already knows its neighborhoods, schools and growth pressures. Brent Brown, now assistant chief of police in Celina, is set to become the town’s next top law enforcement leader after routine pre-employment screening is finished, with a start expected in late July.

The transition comes as Interim Police Chief Ken Meyers continues day-to-day operations and follows the retirement of Doug Kowalski, who stepped down after nearly 49 years in law enforcement, including 12 years as Prosper’s police chief. Kowalski joined the Town of Prosper on Jan. 6, 2014, first as interim chief, and helped guide the department through a period of rapid suburban expansion.

Brown brings more than 24 years of law enforcement experience and a career that has moved through some of North Texas’s fastest-changing cities. He began with the Paris Police Department in 2002, joined The Colony Police Department in 2005 and spent 18 years there in a range of leadership posts, including assistant chief over operations and support services. He was appointed Celina’s assistant chief in March 2023.

Prosper officials said Brown has lived in the town for much of his career, and his family ties run deep: three of his children graduated from Prosper High School. For a town that now spans 27 square miles and had a population of 49,355 as of Jan. 1, 2026, that matters. Brown is not arriving as a stranger to the schools, traffic patterns and civic expectations that come with one of Collin County’s fastest-growing communities.

Town Manager Mario Canizares has said the police chief sets the department’s vision and direction, and Brown will inherit a department that describes its mission as protecting lives and property, preserving the public peace and providing needed community services with professionalism and ethical standards. The real test for residents will come in the next 6 to 12 months, as Brown shapes staffing, response priorities, traffic enforcement and the department’s visibility in new subdivisions, along busy corridors and around school campuses.

Prosper’s decision signals continuity with Kowalski’s long run and a reset under a leader with North Texas roots. As Brown prepares to take over, the town is betting that familiarity with Prosper’s pace of growth will matter as much as experience in leading police departments through it.