Warsaw Police Dept. Sgt. David Morales came to the area for love and never left.

Almost three decades later, he’s retiring from the WPD after 28-1/2 years, 18 of those as a school resource officer.  His last day will be Saturday.

An open house for Morales is set for 2 to 5 p.m. Friday at the police station, 2191 E. Fort Wayne St.

Morales, who just turned 52 Wednesday, is originally from Eagle Pass, southwest Texas.

“I met my wife (Ana) while I was on military leave, and when I left the military I decided to come visit Indiana, get to know her a little more because we pen-palled for about six months, and, meet her family as well. When I did, I didn’t go home. I stayed in Indiana and ended up getting married about two weeks later. I’ve been married since,” he recalled. That was in 1988.

Ana’s family was from the Pierceton area.

Morales joined the U.S. Marines in 1982 and left in 2002. He served active duty for four years with two deployments and joined the Reserves after coming to Indiana. In 2009, he joined the Air Force where he currently serves as an aircraft refueler.

When he moved to Indiana, he found a job with Medcast, which is now Texmo. He saw an ad in the newspaper that the city was seeking to hire police officers, and he decided to apply. He went through the process.

“At the time that I found out I got hired for Warsaw Police Department, I also got hired for the Texas Department of Corrections. So I had to make a choice whether to go back home and work for them or stay here. I decided to stay here,” Morales said.

He had applied for the Texas DOC job in 1987, but he didn’t find out they wanted to hire him until 1988.

Morales started off with the WPD as a patrolman, filling in on any shift at the time.  He worked rotating shifts – six weeks each shift, four on and two off. When the department went to permanent shifts, he worked second shift for about 10 years.

He didn’t always want to be a cop.

“I actually wanted to become a firefighter like my father. He died in the line of duty.  I wanted to become a firefighter, or a truck driver,” Morales said. “I didn’t really intend to be a police officer, but I decided to go for it and see where life would take me and the career that it would give me.”

On April 20, 1999, the Columbine High School shooting massacre happened. Fifteen were killed, including the two perpetrators.

Warsaw Community Schools and the WPD talked about putting a police officer in the schools. Morales applied and went through the application process for the school resource officer position.

“I thought it was a good change of pace within the department. And being a people person, I thought it would be a good fit for me,” he said. He interviewed and became the first school resource officer in the county.

“There was already some guidelines in place, so it was a learning curve for the department and the school in trying to make sure those guidelines apply to the position to better serve the school system and the department as well,” Morales said.

He started serving as SRO during the 1999-2000 school year.

“Since then, it has evolved. We ended up getting more SROs in the county, to include Wawasee and Tippy Valley. Warsaw Schools now has four SROs from the time that I started to now. And other surrounding school systems as well in other counties now have SROs so it’s an expanding part of every police department and school system to try and have SROs,” Morales said.

He said he always enjoyed working around the kids, trying to make a difference in their lives. Morales teaches them and works with them not only about law enforcement and what officers do, but also to answer questions about everything  from traffic tickets to general laws. He’s served as a resource for parents as well as school staff members.

In the summer, Morales returns to road patrol work, mainly on bike patrol. With the WPD, he’s also been a part of the SWAT and scuba dive teams.

The biggest change over the years Morales has seen involves technology.

“Technology is the big one, from the time starting in the SRO program to now. It has been a big issue because of texting and the way the telephones are being used, sometimes not always for the positive reasons, but that has been one of the biggest changes and headaches for staff as well as SROs, not only here but across the country, and for parents,”?he said.

But it’s his love for his job that has gotten him up every morning. “Knowing that you’re coming in to hopefully better somebody’s day, maybe better somebody’s life, somehow, someway. Being a people person, it’s one of those where you get a chance to meet somebody along the way each and every day. Being an SRO, you have those individuals that you daily had interactions with that sought you out who ... to them, that meant a lot because maybe their home life didn’t have those positive comments so you made that extra effort to ensure that you made that contact to help them have a better day,” he said.

Morales decided to retire this year because of changes in life.

“I had pondered about it for a couple of years already. And in looking at the changes within the department and how things were evolving, opportunities in the private sector that were coming up, and being contacted about those opportunities, and in talking with my family, it’s one of these things where it was time to start looking to step aside and let the younger generation of officers step up and take over the department,” he said.

On Sunday, he begins his job with Parkview Health’s police department. Orientation and training will take a couple of weeks. He will then oversee the Warsaw Parkview building. He will work there Monday through Friday during the day shift.

Morales will continue to serve as coordinator for Toys For Tots during the Christmas season. Next year, he said, “we will cross that bridge when we get there.”

His family has encouraged him to consider stepping aside from that so he can enjoy the holiday.

“My career has been great. It’s been a great opportunity to work for the city of Warsaw, having the opportunities to go to numerous trainings and learn to be a better officer, to train other officers, not only for the city but within the county and help them to hopefully be better officers,” Morales said.

“I have enjoyed being one of the few Spanish-speaking officers. The only one initially for the department for a number of years. And knowing that I’ve been able to help not only the citizens of Warsaw, but also the Hispanic population and getting them oriented, explaining things about how laws work and being a resource for them. ... It’s been a blessing to meet different groups of people in the community and seeing the changes in the community of how we’ve become a melting pot per se. The number of people moving in from different states, different countries. It’s been a joy to see the changes in the community, and I look forward to seeing how the city will evolve and change in the future. I’ve always enjoyed the area because it’s been a great place to raise a family,” he said.

David and Ana, who have been married 29 years, have three children, Andrea, Javier and Alex, and a new granddaughter, Esther Faye.

As for the military, Morales said he’s not yet ready to retire from it. He’s looking to stay on for a few more years.