T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — In conjunction with National Police Week, Officer Andrew Weispfenning has been recognized as the 2025 Marshalltown Police Department Employee of the Year.

(Editor’s note: National Police Week is being observed from May 11-17.)

Andrew Weispfenning took an unconventional path into a law enforcement career, and after taking a hiatus in 2018, he re-entered the field at a time when many others were walking away from it. Officer Weispfenning, who previously served the city of Des Moines for about a decade before joining the Marshalltown Police Department in 2020, has been recognized as the MPD’s Employee of the Year.

After growing up along the banks of the Mississippi River and graduating from Camanche High School in 1999, Weispfenning worked toward an environmental science degree at Luther College and a master’s degree in marine biology at Western Washington University.

“I did a lot of salmon research there, a lot of scuba diving, studying rock fish and all that kind of stuff,” he said. “Law enforcement was never really on my radar. One of my best friends growing up is a cop in Des Moines, so after I got a job with the Washington Fish and Game (Department) doing research stuff, I was working a lot with their Fish and Game Patrol. So we were stopping boats and checking fish, but I did a lot of stuff with the University of Washington and the Puget Sound. I was always underwater on boats.”

When he lived in Bellingham, Weispfenning seriously considered applying for a job with the Seattle Police Department but instead ended up returning to Iowa as a result of the high cost of living and the fact that “everybody wanted to be a marine biologist.” Once he came back in 2006, he took a job with the University of Iowa Hygienic Lab in Ankeny working on “water quality and fishery stuff,” but he quickly decided he wanted to be a cop and did a ride-along with his friend before applying with the DMPD and the Iowa State Patrol.

He was hired in Des Moines and took on a variety of roles from patrol to SWAT team to serving as a field training officer (FTO) — and even made an appearance on an episode of the popular television show “Cops.” After Weispfenning met his wife, who was previously married to the late DMPD Officer Carlos Puente Morales (he was killed in the line of duty in 2016), and adopted her children — he also has three other kids from a previous marriage — they made the decision to move out of Des Moines and relocate to the small town of Hubbard in Hardin County.

“Me working where their dad got killed was hard on everybody, and I was kind of getting burnt out on the job because Des Moines was just so super busy all the time with 10 hours of nonstop (calls),” he said.

In 2018, Weispfenning opted to leave his job in Des Moines and take a break from law enforcement. His wife, who had previous experience working for Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA), had urged him to consider Marshalltown, a city he had never even visited. At the time, however, officers were required to live within 30 miles, and Hubbard is about 40 miles northwest of Marshalltown.

Switching gears once again, he spent about a year and a half running a research farm for Iowa Select Farms despite his admitted lack of knowledge about pigs, but after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, Weispfenning felt compelled to return to his old line of work.

“(I was) watching the news and seeing my buddies in Des Moines getting hit with bricks and stuff. And I told my wife, ‘I’m going back,’ and everybody was like ‘You’re nuts,'” he said. “I knew a lot of cops in Des Moines that were tired of just being under the microscope and they’d take their calls, but they weren’t out actively trying to get into things. Or finding other jobs or different careers. Talking to some of those guys, it was like ‘You’re nuts. Why would you go back?’ I’m like ‘Because they need good cops. Nobody’s applying.'”

Once the MPD lifted its residency restriction, then-Chief Mike Tupper quickly called Weispfenning, and he officially came onboard in 2020. He started out on the night shift, which he admitted was initially a bit hard on the family, but his seniority shot up when a slew of other new officers were hired. He also got back into FTO work and has been approached about pursuing various promotions, but the veteran officer is quite content in his current position.

“They’ve been trying to get me to go to detective and try to be a supervisor. I like FTO because I feel like I can do more. I can help these guys because there was really nobody that had a whole lot of experience,” he said. “I’ve pretty much seen it all and done it all, and I feel like I can help these new guys do the job safer and help the community better than me being a detective.”

And although he doesn’t hold the detective title, he’s always happy to assist other officers in solving a case in any way that he can. Police Chief Chris Jones, who assumed the position earlier this year, said Weispfenning’s background in science showcases his ability to dig into the small details that add up to larger investigations.

“He’s been fantastic at finding people. He’s probably one of the key people that we have within the agency, if we’re looking for somebody, that can figure out where they’re at and end up locating them,” Jones said. “But what really kind of sets him apart is his ability to teach other people, so his work as a field training officer and all of the vast knowledge that he’s gathered over his career and being able to compress that down to information and ideas and techniques that younger officers can relate to (is crucial). Even though he does have experience, he’s great with technology, and younger officers really relate to that, utilizing the resources that we have.”

If anything, Weispfenning did say he would be interested in serving on the Mid-Iowa Drug Task Force, but his passion still lies in doing the day-to-day work on patrol, taking calls for service and leading the Flock camera project.

“Here, it’s busy, but there’s enough down time. My main thing is I like to go after wanted people and drugs, so between calls, that’s what I’m doing. The shifts here just fly by on (the) day shift,” he said. “I would say, for the size of the town, it’s busier than Des Moines when you factor in the difference in population. There’s always something going on, always people to look for, and I just like patrol. I like being out there being able to help.”

As Jones put it, his goal is to create an environment where officers get the most out of their profession, whether they wish to move up the ladder and become supervisors or stay on patrol as Weispfenning has thus far opted to do.

“The issue of it is somewhere along the line, you just have to find what you enjoy doing, and some people like to come to work and deal in their strengths and work around their strengths. And this is something that Andrew does,” Jones said. “Now, down the road, that might change. He may want to be a supervisor. We hope that he does because he does a great job. I think he would be a great leader within the department — or formal leader within the department — but for the most part, if he’s happy doing what he’s doing and he likes to do it here, then I would encourage him to continue doing it.”

Weispfenning, who is in his mid 40s, joked that he’s become a father figure to some of the MPD’s youngest officers, and he hopes he can show them the ropes and encourage others to follow the law enforcement career path.

“You’ve gotta be able to multitask. You’ve gotta be tough, and you’ve gotta be able to put stuff on the back because I’ve seen a lot of bad stuff. You just can’t let that affect you. It always affects you, but it just takes a special person to be able to do all the different types of calls we have,” he said.

Some calls and moments, he added, are difficult to forget. Weispfenning was the first officer on scene at the fatal 2022 accident that claimed the lives of four Marshalltown teenagers, and he also responded to the house fire at 505 E. Church St. earlier this year that ultimately resulted in the death of a three-year-old girl. On the flip side, he helped to secure arrests in the credit card skimmer case at the Lincoln Way Casey’s last year and assisted an officer in investigating a stolen Corvette that led to arrests on burglary and car theft charges in several counties.

Whether it’s a good day or a bad day, however, he’s proud to be a cop, proud to serve Marshalltown and proud to be recognized by his MPD colleagues as the employee of the year.

“I just try to be a mentor to everyone and lead by example, I guess,” Weispfenning said. “I really enjoy the community support (in Marshalltown), which we didn’t really have in Des Moines… I took a big pay cut to come here, and everyone thought I was stupid for that too. But for me, it’s not about the money, and I feel like doing work here reaches out farther than Marshalltown because we’re dealing with people from Des Moines, all over the state and other states. So what we do here not only affects the community here but the whole state. I guess that’s what I like a lot about this job. You can help people not just in this town but all around.”

For Jones, the mentorship Weispfenning provides is invaluable to the MPD as a whole and motivates younger officers to be better as they grow and develop in their careers.

“I would encourage him to do everything that he’s doing now. He’s doing a fantastic job. And then to boot, to have the reflection of our staff to come in and nominate him for the employee of the year, I think that’s a testament to the effect that he has across the board, across the agency rather than maybe just his shift or the people that he works with,” the chief said. “It’s a department-wide commendation, for sure. The comments other people have made are just the facts that he’s a humble worker, and he backs all of his knowledge up with results. And he’s relatable to people, and people like to listen to what he has to say and what he has to share, and they respect the work that he does.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.