Don Markle was one of the 12 people who reported for duty on the Merrillville Police Department`s opening day, March 1, 1973.
Since then he has chased speeding stolen cars, testified against an accused rapist and cleared streets for parades. He has seen area farms give way to shopping centers and office complexes. And he has joined fellow officers as they entered the computer age and the drug war.
”I wouldn`t trade this job for anything,” says Markle, 50, who worked his way through the ranks to his present position, assistant chief. ”There is something different every day.”
”If the Merrillville Police Department is unique in any way, it`s that we`re not unique,” says Chief Jerry McCory, 38. ”Our officers see the whole gamut, from dogs running loose to car bombs.”
The 41 officers will write about 30,000 reports this year. As assistant chief, Markle is in charge of department administration. He makes sure all the reports are logged correctly and that any follow-up is completed. Traffic citations, for example, must be attached to a copy of the offender`s driving record and sent to traffic court. In criminal proceedings, copies of the reports are directed to the prosecutor`s office.
In addition, he oversees all personnel and payroll records and the maintenance schedules of the department`s 41 vehicles.
”Don is the glue who makes sure everything is held together,” says McCory, who has also been with the department since the first day. ”You can search a long time and you might find someone equal in dependability, but there is no one superior. He is the one who does all the work and receives very little credit for what he does. Don is always willing to take the extra steps to help somebody.”
”My goal is to keep the reputation of our department at a high standard,” says Markle, who has been assistant chief for six years. ”We have a good relationship with this town, the schools, businesses and people, and we want to keep it that way.
”Little things mean something. It isn`t easy to shut down the streets for a homecoming parade, but we do it for the people.”
Markle was the service manager in the automotive department of a large department store in Gary when he heard that Merrillville, which recently had incorporated (1971), was recruiting officers for the new police department. He applied and was accepted.
He attended a six-week training course at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Bloomington. During his career he also has taken additional courses and attended seminars on subjects ranging from police administration to Satanism.
”I`ve never been sorry I made the decision to change jobs, even though at the time I took a cut in pay,” Markle says. ”It feels good when you can help someone.”
Some days are more frustrating than rewarding, however. Markle recalls a homicide that took place about five years ago in which a 5-year-old girl was stabbed about 20 times in her front yard by a neighbor. The bleeding youngster stood up and walked to her front door, where she collapsed and died.
Although the killer quickly was apprehended and convicted, ”there was no satisfaction in catching him because it was so senseless,” he says.
”We work to maintain the confidence of our citizens and to be responsive to their needs,” McCory says. ”We`re pro-active rather than re-active. We try to prevent crimes from happening rather than wait until after they have occurred.”
He cites two examples, both implemented in the last year: the Crime Watch and DARE programs. The department has one officer assigned to each program full time.
In the Crime Watch program, the town is divided into geographic areas headed by block captains. One police officer heads the program, holding regular meetings about crime prevention in the areas. Residents are encouraged to be on the alert for suspicious activity in their neighborhoods and to notify the police.
”We have made arrests lots of times from information we`ve gotten from people,” McCory says.
DARE is a drug awareness and prevention program implemented in the schools. The officer in charge works with teachers and students, leading classes in self-esteem and pointing out the signs and symptoms of drug abuse. DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
”The drug problem is everywhere,” McCory says. ”We`re not riddled with drugs like some cities are. We don`t have crack houses, but we have overdoses occasionally. But to say we don`t have a drug problem would be a lie. The entire country has a drug problem. The country faces more destruction by drugs than by nuclear war.”
The Merrillville Police Department serves an area of about 31 square miles, with a population of about 28,000 people, the chief says. The crime rate and population have stayed about the same for the last 10 years, he adds. ”We don`t have a lot of violent crime, although any (crime) is too much,” he says. In a typical year, the crime statistics include 1.3 murders, 2 or 3 rapes and 25 to 30 armed robberies. (This year there have been two murders: a motel clerk was fatally shot in early March, and a labor official was killed by a bomb in his truck in mid-September. Both murders are unsolved.)
”Our biggest problem is traffic,” he says. ”Merrillville becomes a community of about 100,000 during the day with our shopping centers and office buildings, and we have just a few thoroughfares. We`ll investigate in excess of 2,000 accidents this year. For the past four years we`ve had a record number of accidents,” because of the number of people coming into the community.
McCory`s concern is to maintain the department`s commitment and service to residents. Because more than half of the department will be eligible to retire within the next three or four years, he implemented a team system for training new recruits about three years ago. Recently-hired police officers are assigned to work with seasoned detectives for intense training in investigative techniques. They learn the intricacies of such duties as dusting for fingerprints and taking an accurate statement.
”Not that they all will retire, but the community stands to lose 400 years of law enforcement” experience, says McCory, who is one of those who will be eligible for retirement. ”We won`t leave the community with an untrained police department.”
