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Thank you, Marshalltown!

Thank you, Marshalltown!

After thirty-two years of law enforcement service, I am reluctantly hanging it up. For the past thirteen years, I have had the honor to serve you as your police chief and to work alongside some of the best law enforcement professionals in Iowa. It has been a great ride. I love this job. I really do not want to leave it. In my heart, I know it is time. I will miss the job, all of it. I will miss serving the good people of Marshalltown.

This job has never felt like a job. It has been a way of life, a calling. Along the way, I have seen and experienced so many great things. This job has been a blessing. There have been challenges for sure. I have made many mistakes but those failures always made me better. I do have regrets. As it turns out, you don’t always know everything you think you know. This is especially true in your youth. I have witnessed some things I wish I could unsee. I have seen the best of mankind and the worst. I have worked with and for a lot of great people, people I admire, and people I will never forget. I would not be where I am today without these folks.

My family have been my biggest cheerleaders and I owe them so much. Law enforcement families do not receive the credit they deserve. They have the toughest job of all. They worry about you. They are often left out and even neglected. When it comes to family, it is here I have most of my regrets. I made many mistakes. I was too often absent, even when I was present with them. I often failed horribly as a father and as a husband. I too often put the job first. I have much to make up for.

The job has changed a lot over the years. Most of these changes have been for the better of the profession. In some ways, the job is a lot harder than it once was and maybe than it needs to be. Serving as a law enforcement officer remains an honorable and noble calling. The young people moving into the profession are harder to find but the ones who take it on are tremendous professionals. The Marshalltown Police Department has gotten younger and is filled with people who are dedicated to serving and protecting the Marshalltown community.

I have said this before and I will say it for the last time: the police department has a budget for forty-two police officers. We have work for fifty. This has been a problem for the entire thirteen years I have worked here. The workload continues to increase. The complexity of the work is more challenging than ever.

To maintain a safe community, Marshalltown must invest in quality people, pay them top dollar, and make sure they have the resources they need to be successful. Technology is everything in the policing world. I challenge the community to continue to invest in the modern technology and training our police officers need to do the job. Because technology changes so quickly, there will be mistakes made, and perhaps there will be purchases made that will not work out as intended. When this happens, don’t be discouraged. Trust your police professionals to find the resources they need and then invest in these resources.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that this job is about the people we are charged with serving. Everyone in our community deserves police protection. They should never be afraid of calling for help, and we need them to call us when they can help us. Regardless of demographics or background, the police department — and the services provided — belong to everyone. Marshalltown is a safe community.

To keep it this way, we need everyone in the community to be engaged with the law enforcement professionals serving in our community. The job has always been about relationships with the community, outreach to the community, and partnerships in the community. These are areas the Marshalltown Police Department excels in. It was not always this way. I challenge the community to encourage police leadership to continue to invest in relationship building.

Building trust through transparency, and the professional delivery of police services, is critical for the success of our community. Hold the police department accountable to these values. When law enforcement falls short of expectations, call it out. When law enforcement meets the expectations, support them, even when it is hard and unpopular. Marshalltown has always shown great support of public safety. We feel this support daily and we have appreciated it more than you know.

There are so many people I need to thank. Over the coming weeks, I will do my best to reach them all. Nobody ever does anything without a lot of help and support along the way. I have been blessed to have so many people in my life who have shown me a great deal of love, tolerance, and patience. In fact, these people have given me more than I deserve and more than I can ever repay. I am eternally grateful. Marshalltown has embraced the Tupper family and we are proud to call her home.

I do not know what is next for me. I do know that whatever it is, it will never be as good as what I am leaving behind. I will be eternally grateful to the Marshalltown community and my co-workers. Keep working together to build a better future for everyone.

Fight forward!

——

Michael W. Tupper is the retired chief of the

Marshalltown Police Department.

Starting at $4.38/week.

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