50th Year: Chief Waldrop marks 50 years in law enforcement; grows MPD from 11 officers to 82 - Northside Sun

Since a young child, Gene Waldrop knew he wanted to be a police officer and this month, on April 7, he celebrated his 50th year in law enforcement. Growing up in Greenville, he lived next to a Greenville police captain who oversaw the department’s patrol division. That captain had a big influence on Waldrop and inspired him to pursue the same career path.

“I always wanted to be a police officer,” Waldrop said. “I started with the Greenville Police Department as a rookie patrolman in 1971.”

Waldrop served six years in the Mississippi Army National Guard and graduated from Louisiana State University Law Enforcement Institute and the FBI National Academy. He said he “pretty much” entered law enforcement straight out of high school. The Greenville Police Department had a policy that, if they were short handed, they could hire new officers that were 20 years old. There were eight other young officers that started with Waldrop.

“As you go through your career, you move up the ladder and, eventually, I wound up as the chief,” Waldrop said.

He retired as the Greenville Police Chief in 1991 after 20 years serving the Greenville Police Department. Waldrop took four months off and came to Madison to be its police chief, where he has been for the last 30 years.

“I was too young to retire, so I felt like I still had a lot to offer to the profession,” Waldrop said. “This opportunity became available, and it was the best choice I ever made.”

Waldrop said he was drawn to Madison because of the challenge it presented at the time. He said there were about 7,400 people in Madison when he started but it had the projections of a growing community. He said it was a small department, and the challenge was to build a police department that could handle growth and expansion – not just of businesses and population but also the size of the city itself.

“I would like to hope we’ve come close (to accomplishing that),” Waldrop said. “We are always reviewing and studying where we are at in the police department but also where the city is and where it is headed – trying to analyze if we have enough officers and the right equipment. There is a lot of stuff that we look at to make sure we are prepared for the future.”

When Waldrop started as the Madison Police Chief, he had 11 officers. His department is now allocated 82 officers. While this is a big change throughout his career in Madison, he said the biggest change inside the law enforcement profession during his career has been technology and keeping up with its pace.

“Not only the change of technology but we have to have people educated and trained to use that technology,” Waldrop said. “So, it’s constantly an educational and research type issue with our equipment.”

What hasn’t changed during his years as a police officer? The people who choose to pursue law enforcement as their profession.

“They come in, they have a big heart, and they want to help people,” Waldrop said. “We had it in the ‘70s, and we’ve got it in the 2020s. It is good.”

Waldrop said the biggest thing he has learned throughout his career is patience. His desire to help people at their best and at their worst hasn’t faded, but he has learned to be patient.

“I think, not unlike everyone else, you certainly have your bad days, especially as a young officer,” Waldrop said. “You get impatient. You want things now. Things don’t always come as long as we’d like them to. You get impatient and start looking around and seeing other things, but I was always drawn back to this is the profession that I feel I was picked to do. I’ve been content with it.”

If he could go back in time and tell himself some advice when he was first starting out in law enforcement or give some advice to young officers, he would say, “Not everyday is your best day, but the way you approach that day and the service that you or I can give to this community is a paramount of importance. So, the problems have to stay at the house, and you come to work with the goal of protecting the citizens that you serve.”

He said sometimes officers, especially young officers, forget that the shield they wear is six ounces, not six pounds.

“Young officers are here to cure all the ill and solve all the problems in society,” Waldrop said. “I applaud them for doing it because you need the breath of fresh air that comes into a community, but you have to train and show them the right way. One of those ways is understanding the shield and the weight of it.”

He said the community gives officers the “awesome” responsibility of serving and protecting them, but he finds nothing to be worse than when an officer forgets his roots and his job in the law enforcement profession.

“So, we always use this analogy: Walk lightly and help the people with a smile on your face as long as the citizens allow it,” Waldrop said.

The highlight of his career is the same thing he credits as the reason for Madison being the safest city in Mississippi: the people inside the department and those outside the department he works with.

“I think the highlight is going to be working with people,” Waldrop said. “There are four pillars to a community. It is the law enforcement personnel, the community that you live in and protect, the governmental body that you have, and the media. It takes all four of those working together to be successful. If one breaks down, you can see the rest of them start to have concerns and issues.”

Waldrop said if those four elements are working together, most of the time you’ll have a successful position in the law enforcement realm.

“Certainly, I would be a part of that formula, but it takes all four to actually make this work in this community or any community,” Waldrop said. “I think we certainly adhere to that (to make Madison the safest city).”

The people in the community and in the department also serve as Waldrop’s motivation.

“It is a wonderful city to work for and work with,” Waldrop said. “You have to work with them and you have to work to protect them. Then, work internally to make sure we are doing what we are supposed to be. This is a business. It is a business of serving and protecting our community.”

As far as Waldrop’s legacy he wants to leave behind as he continues his career after hitting this 50 year milestone, it is pretty straightforward.

“I came to work, gave the best product I could give and hopefully have made the right decisions on the growth of this department and how we do business in this community,” Waldrop said.

“I don’t know how many years I have left in the profession, but I’ll be doing something. I’m not the one that is going to go sit in the recliner and watch Gunsmoke on TV. That is just not who I am. I have to be doing something and working. As long as the good Lord allows me to have the health to do it and it is fun, let’s go to work.”

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source: https://www.northsidesun.com/50th-year-chief-waldrop-marks-50-years-law-enforcement-grows-mpd-11-officers-82

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