Pierceton Chief Addresses Warsaw Council About WPD
Pierceton Chief Addresses Warsaw Council About WPD
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Pierceton Chief Addresses Warsaw Council About WPDPierceton Police Chief Tim Sammons wasn’t invited to speak at the Warsaw Common Council meeting Monday night, but he had something to say about the Warsaw Police Department.
“As a matter of fact, if I would have been invited, my words would be less significant,” he said. “As a department head of a small police agency, still experiencing large police agency crimes at times, it is important to find resources surrounding investigation, training, exchanging information, networking, mentoring, to name a few.”
He said he was before the council to express his appreciation to WPD Chief Scott Whitaker and his staff.
“I am truly thankful for the support that me and my officers have received from the Warsaw Police Department over the years – from the front desk ladies to the front back offices to the monthly invites of the countywide detectives meeting,” Sammons continued.
He thanked several WPD employees by name, beginning with Angie Howard who is “always just a phone call away to help with the Report Management Systems questions I may have.” He thanked Lt. Paul Heaton and his entire detective division “who never once has dismissed the opportunity to give me and my officers help over the phone or in person.”
Sammons told a story about how he was in the middle of an investigation of a bank robbery in Pierceton and needed help typing a request for a search warrant of a suspect’s house. He said smaller police agencies do not deal with search warrants frequently like the city police do.
At 10 p.m. that night, he reached out to WPD Det. Brad Kellar “who took my phone call without hesitation and quickly helped me moved forward with the search warrant request,” Sammons said. This was on Christmas Eve. Being the holiday, Sammons acknowledged Kellar could have “easily told me he was spending time with his family, but he didn’t.” Kellar had laptop issues, so he drove from his house to the police department to help Sammons with the warrant request – at 11:30 p.m. Christmas Eve.
Sammons said WPD Chief Deputy Bryan Sherwin, Capt. Joel Beam and Sgt. Gordon Allen let his new female officer train with Warsaw’s two new female officers, though training wasn’t the big picture.
“The bigger picture was that it gave three new female police officers the opportunity to network, to get to know each other, bond and train together, hopefully fostering a long law enforcement relationship between these three young women,” Sammons said.
“I get it. At times we do not hear the positive behind the scenes, the underworkings of police agencies in this county. We only hear about speculations, grumblings and we immediately conclude that the surrounding police departments keep our distance from each other and share no resources amongst us,” Sammons said. “This absolutely could not be further from the truth. If it was the truth, I could not be here tonight sharing what I have.”
Sammons said being a police officer is a tough job, and officers make decisions daily that are not popular for everyone, sometimes in a split second.
He said his relationship with the WPD was only professional and had no political agenda.
“The city of Warsaw has a great police department, and I mean all the way from the office staff to the support staff and to the police officers. And you should be proud to know what goes on behind the scenes,” Sammons said.
After an applause from those in attendance, Mayor Joe Thallemer told Sammons he appreciated Sammons’ words of encouragement and thanked him for his honesty.
“I don’t know what else to say, but it’s always nice to hear the good things. Thank you very much,” Thallemer said.
