Menu
Chief's life comes full circle
To a point, Police Chief John Walter is simply going home -- a chance for his life to come full circle.
Walter notified the city recently that he will be resigning as police chief.
It's not been an easy choice for him to make. A man known for his easy going demeanor and quick wit, the decision to leave has left him torn between serving the community he quickly grew to love and the family he left behind.
Following more than three years of serving the Mountain Home community, the city's chief of police will step down in a few weeks and return to the community where he grew up.
He wishes he didn't have to leave. However, as both of his parents and his wife's parents struggle with various health issues, Walter admits that family comes first.
"It's time for us to find a balance between the profession and the family," he said. "I can't do that 1,500 miles from my parents and my in-laws."
The police chief and his family will leave Mountain Home for Bolivar, Mo., where he will become that city's next chief of police. Located about 30 minutes north of Springfield, Mo., the city holds special memories for Walter, who spent part of his childhood there where he played Little League baseball and Mighty Mite football.
"Those kind of opportunities don't come every day," he said, regarding his upcoming move that will put him so close to both sets of parents.
A towering individual that always seemed to have a smile on his face, Walter became a police officer in 1986. It was a drastic departure from his post-college career as a Christian youth group director and lay minister.
In 1987, he was hired by the Prairie Village Police Department -- a small community west of Kansas City. Starting off as a patrolman, he spent the next 20 years working his way though the ranks until he held the rank of police captain.
Moving to Mountain Home represented a significant career move for Walter, who had spent more than 10 years as a senior police officer with few opportunities to move upward in that department. "It was time for a new challenge," he said.
In 2007, Walter applied to become the chief of police here, replacing the city's outgoing police chief, Tom Berry.
With a department of 28 sworn officers and five civilians, along with four more employees at the city's animal shelter, Walter admits he faced a multitude of challenges when he took charge of the city's police force. The biggest was dealing with the sheer volume of work his department tackles every day.
"Police work has always been 24/7," he said. But as the city's senior law enforcement officer, it quickly became an around-the-clock commitment. Meanwhile, his presence at city council meetings, civic engagements and other commitments throughout the year kept him even busier, he added.
"That's a challenge, probably more challenging that I ever imagined," he said.
During his time here, Walter fostered a leadership philosophy of "mutual dependence" where everyone in the department has a stake in serving the community. He compared it to an all-star baseball team where each player must work in unison to achieve success.
He admits that he's reluctant to leave this "cohesive, high-functioning team" that includes some "truly awesome men and women."
The high standards set by his department led to more arrests that ultimately helped improve public safety. In addition to dealing with thefts and violent crimes, for example, his officers made far greater efforts to identify and catch people driving under the influence.
"The men and the women out here are just working harder," he said. They don't remain idle. Instead, they put a lot of miles on their patrol cars to remain visible in the neighborhoods and business districts.
"They have absolutely responded above any expectations I ever had," Walter said.
In addition to giving his department the resources needed to do their jobs effectively, Walter ensured his officers remained actively involved in management decisions and had a greater understanding of the department's inner workings, from training to budget development.
He knows those officers could've easily stepped in and ran the department had Walter needed to leave much sooner than expected.
The police chief isn't the type that gets emotional on certain issues. However, the idea of leaving a town that he loves and a police force that far exceeded his expectations left him visibly holding back tears.
"Mountain Home is a tremendously safe place to live and to work and to raise a family," he said. While not a fully crime-free community, it remains a place where children can walk the streets and people look out for one another and report things that seem out of place.
"We have a kind of community where neighbors look out for other neighbors," he said. "They're not living behind locked doors and closed curtains in their own little worlds. That's what makes Mountain Home a special place to live."
Choking back his emotions, he said that he hopes that people here will remember him as a man of integrity that loved the community and people that he served over the past few years.
"I've just been blessed to work with the men and women here and to serve our citizens of this city," Walter said, as he wiped his eyes. "I'm grateful that 3 1/2 years ago, the city council and Mayor Rist were willing to give a guy 1,500 miles away the opportunity to come serve our citizens here. I'm grateful for that (and) I hope I've given them a great return on that investment and that decision."
The city is expected to begin a national search for his replacement, the same process that brought Walter here.