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After two weeks in DeLeon, Police Chief
John McDaniel, Jr. is starting to settle in to the recently vacated
chief’s office at the police station.
A desk was delivered last week, and extra
chairs will arrive soon. McDaniel’s diplomas and certificates grace
one wall, while an extensive collection of law enforcement patches
hangs on another. Various police officer memorabilia and Marine Corps
collectables are grouped on counter-tops. A recent interview with
McDaniel revealed how the things these items represent have shaped his
life.
“I was born in Clinton, Oklahoma,”
McDaniel said, “and that’s where I was raised. We moved to Amarillo in
1963 or 64 and I stayed there until my junior year in 68 and we moved
to Altus, Oklahoma. That’s where I finished school. I joined the
Marine Corps in 1970 and was in the Marine Corps from then until 1978,
and saw some action in Viet Nam in March of 75 when they evacuated
Saigon. When I got out in 78, I moved to Pampa. I stayed there and
worked in the oil field with Texaco pretty much through the 80s. I
went to the police academy in 1990.”
When asked what prompted this somewhat
later-than-normal career in law enforcement, McDaniel said, “I
originally looked at law enforcement back in the mid 70s when I was
overseas. I was in my early 20s, and I had taken a law enforcement
course from Los Angeles Community College. One of the assignments was
that you send off to some agencies for brochures on their hiring
requirements. Of course, being in my early 20s, I sent off to all the
major agencies, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, New York. All of their
requirements stated that your vision couldn’t be any worse than, I
think, 21-50, correctable to 20-20. At that time, my vision was very
bad, so I did not believe that I could get into law enforcement with
my eyes the way they were. Comes to find out, that was a misnomer...so
when I found that out I went to the police academy, graduated and then
went into the law enforcement profession.”
McDaniel said that in 2002, once laser
surgery had become available, he had corrective surgery. “Now, I have
20-20 vision,” he said.
A job at the Cochran County Sheriff’s
Office was McDaniel’s first post-academy position.
“That was a very small department,”
McDaniel said. “From there I went to the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s
Department. That was in 1995. I was there until 2001 and then I went
to work for the Chambers County Sheriff’s Department. I was with them
until November of 2002 when I went to work for B.J., the district
attorney over in Meridian. I was an investigator there.”
McDaniel described his duties with the D.
A.’s office as varied.
“We would get the offense reports from a
law enforcement agency (in Comanche County, Hamilton County or Bosque
County) and make sure all the elements were there -- that we had a
good offense.” McDaniel would often locate witnesses and make sure
case reports were complete. “We chased down the leads for presentation
to the grand jury, as well as for trial,” he said.
McDaniel said he learned about DeLeon’s
search for a chief just after completing his most recent law
enforcement studies.
“I graduated this past spring from the
University of Texas, with a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice,”
McDaniel said. “I wanted to get into an administrative position in law
enforcement. Then I was looking on the TMA website and saw that DeLeon
had advertised for a chief of police. Having been with the D.A.’s
office I knew about DeLeon and decided to pursue this opportunity.”
McDaniel’s degree from UT was earned
primarily through Internet studies, and he plans to pursue an advanced
degree through the same method.
“In January of 2007, I’ll start my
master’s program at Sam Houston State University at Huntsville,”
McDaniel said. “That’s probably the number one university in the
country as far as criminal justice goes. If it’s not number one, it’s
probably in the top three. They have put their master’s degree program
entirely on-line. So if you have your bachelor's degree and you apply
to the master’s program at Sam, and they accept you, you can take it
all on line.”
McDaniel and his wife are the parents of
five children.
“My wife’s name is Robbin,” he said, “and
we have three boys and two girls. They range in age from 23 to 37. The
boy’s all live in East Texas, one daughter lives in Phoenix, Arizona
and one in Wichita Falls. I have eight grandchildren.”
Although John and Robbin (who has a
background in accounting and bookkeeping) currently live in Clifton,
they plan to move to DeLeon as soon as their house sells. “We’re in
the process of doing some painting on our house in Clifton...but it’s
already on the market at this time,” he said.
McDaniel said that he hasn’t had a lot of
time for hobbies recently. “For the last three or four years, all my
spare time has been spent on schoolwork,” he said. In times past,
though, he said he has “loved to play golf.” McDaniel said he also
enjoys watching Dallas Cowboy games, and admits to being “upset” when
Jerry Jones bought the team and fired Tom Landry. When he gets the
chance to watch a movie, McDaniel said that those starring Denzel
Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey are among his
favorites.
When asked about plans and initiatives
for the police department, McDaniel indicated that he plans to take a
“wait and see” attitude.
“What I want to do is to not change a
bunch of things for about the first 90 days,” McDaniel said. “I want
to see where we are, how we’re doing things. Things may need to be
tweaked a little bit, but I’m not going to be making any major changes
right away. After about 90 days, I’ll look at things and see what we
need to do. As far as personnel changes, I knew three of the four
officers here from having worked with the D.A.s office,” McDaniel
said. “Ralph (Dickey) was here, Robert (Kluge) was here and Dustin
(Paulsen) was in Comanche, so I knew all of them. The only one I
didn’t know was Richard (Hyatt). He was working with Comanche S.O. at
the time I was working with B.J., but he was a dispatcher so I did not
know him. Like I told the council, I’m not going to just come over
here, and say ‘you’re gone’ and bring in a whole new staff. I know how
these guys work...so, at this point in time, I don’t foresee see any
sort of personnel changes.” McDaniel said he does plan on trying to
“build up the reserve staff.”
McDaniel will be out of town for “chief
training” this week, but said he looks forward to getting around and
meeting the people of DeLeon soon. |
