News from July 26, 2007 issue

Local News
The Crittenden Press (3 pages) PDF
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Police Chief retiring his badge
Police Chief Kenneth Winn enjoys relaxing on an archery range, firing arrow after arrow from one of his homemade longbows. It’s a therapeutic exercise for the 32-year lawman who finds peace in traditional archery.
Shooting a bow and arrow is one thing, but firing a pistol is another. In his lengthy career as a policeman, Winn has never fired his service revolver in the line of duty. In fact, he’s only once pulled it with the true intent to stop a suspect. Even that still haunts him.
Winn, 61, is retiring from the Marion Police Department at the end of the month. He will hang up the badge after serving as head of the department for nearly 19 years. Marion has had just two police chiefs in the past 52 years – William Ollie Brown and Winn.
While a replacement has not been officially named, Assistant Police Chief Ray O’Neal is the only applicant for the job. It’s anticipated that the city will officially name him the new chief at the beginning of August.
For Winn, the thought of retirement is bittersweet. Through the years he’s made countless friends and very few enemies. That’s a sizeable chore for a lawman.
“He’s the same guy every day whether you meet him on the street or in the office,” said O’Neal. “All of the guys feel the same way around the police department. We’re really going to miss him.”
Mayor Mickey Alexander said Winn’s strong, but gentle demeanor has made him a respected lawman.
“I remember back when he was still a patrolman and a woman stopped me in town and asked who the new, tall policeman was in town,” related the mayor. “This woman said she met him walking down Carlisle Street and he tipped his hat and said, “Good day, ma’am.
“She was really surprised,” the mayor added. “She said she’d never had someone tip their hat at her.”
At 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, the chief towers over most others and perhaps that intimidation factor has been one reason that he’s had very little trouble subduing bad guys over the years. Although Winn recalls several scuffles with criminals, he counts just one occasion that warranted potentially deadly force. It’s a story he still relives over and over because Winn knows deep down that he’d have fired his pistol if the suspect hadn’t dropped the rifle he was carrying.
It was several years ago when a man involved in a domestic dispute called the police station and ended up threatening the emergency dispatcher. The man said he was coming into town, and he was armed. When the man drove into the former Save-A-Lot parking lot and rammed a police cruiser, Winn knew it was going to be the real deal.
“I got out and took a position behind the police car with my gun across the hood,” Winn remembers. “The guy was getting out of his car with a rifle in his hand.
“He looked at me and knew I had the drop on him, so he dropped the gun. I’m glad he did because I’d already made up my mind that I would do what I had to do.”
As a police officer, Winn says those type incidents are few and far between in Marion, Kentucky. But since he’s been chief here, the city has had every type of serious crime except a bank robbery. It’s those things that have made the job stressful. Otherwise, it’s been very rewarding, Winn said. He even says that people he’d arrested in earlier days are now friendly.
When Winn got his start in law enforcement, there was more of a Mayberry mentality in small towns across Kentucky. He remembers former county clerk Jim Wheeler recommending that he talk to then-Chief Ollie Brown about a job. The police department was looking for a replacement for the retiring and somewhat legendary local lawman Rube Franklin.
“I went to the chief's house one morning and knocked on his door. We talked for a while and the rest is more or less history," Winn said.
No formal training was necessary, just a gun, a badge and trial by fire, Winn said.
Eventually, the City of Marion changed its policy for policemen and in 1979 made training mandatory. Winn went to the police academy for a 10-week course. Now, that same training takes over 18 weeks.
“So much has changed,” Winn said. “Now we have computers in the cruisers and Taser guns, which by the way are the best thing that has come along.”
Winn grew up in Michigan but visted here as a young man. His family was from the Creswell and Flatrock areas in the edge of Caldwell County.
“Frankly, I wanted to live in the country and I picked Marion. I had visited here in the summers growing up and really liked it.”
Winn made this his home and Mayor Alexander says the retiring chief has often shown a great deal of pride in the community.
“He takes the overall image of the city to heart,” the mayor said. “He often goes beyond what’s normally expected in order to improve the community or to make something better.”
While Winn plans to spend his 62nd birthday next month spending time with his grandchildren, fishing or getting ready for the archery deer season, he’ll maintain some ties to the city and law enforcement. He has been asked to remain on the Pennyrile Area Narcotics Task Force board of directors as this community’s volunteer representative. He has served on the board for 20 years, since the task force’s inception.
Winn says drugs, namely methamphetamine and prescription pills, are among the greatest problems this community faces.
“I think people have gotten a little more violent over the years,” he said. “A lot of that is because of the drugs.”
Domestic violence and identity theft are also growing problems.
Winn is proud of his police department and its record. He talks about each officer as if he was his own child and beams with satisfaction in describing a professional force that has been built to serve a small Kentucky community. From a new weapons training range to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, Winn says local law enforcement is well positioned to deal with providing peace for the community well into this century.
Through his own philosophy and the city’s progressive hiring policies, the police department is sharp and well-trained.
“I’m leaving an excellent department,” he said while peering off into the distance, his mind apparently wondering back through the years and police files that are socked away somewhere in the new city hall building.
“This has been a very satisfying job. Like all jobs, sure it has its frustrations, but I have been fortunate over the years to work with the same mayor and some very fine other city employees. It’s just time that I step down,” Winn said. “Law enforcement is for the young and energetic.”
Despite being hobbled a bit by recent foot surgery, Winn says he’s getting back to normal and will be spending his newfound spare time volunteering at his church and with family. He has three children, John, Karen and Saundra. The youngest, Saundra, is a junior at Crittenden County High School. She was born to Winn and his wife Dorothy – or “Dottie” as she’s best known – when the chief was 45 years old. Winn looks forward to spending more time following his daughter’s basketball career and just taking it easy.
From now on, there shouldn’t be any reason for him to fire anything except one of his hand-made bows at a deer or turkey target.
“I’d like to continue shooting traditional archery and I’d like to make a few more out-of-state bow shoots,” he said.