New Chauncey Adopts WLPD Captain John Walker As Our "Cop"
Captain John Walker has stepped up to be the New Chauncey Neighborhood representative to the West Lafayette Police Department. Since he has adopted us, we thought that it would be nice to get to know him a bit better and here is what we found out.
John earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Supervision from Purdue and is a graduate of the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. Before joining the WLPD in 1993, John was an Indiana State Excise Officer for two years. He is a Board Certified Instructor through the Law Enforcement Academy and has been an instructor there for the past 13 years. He specializes in Defensive Tactics and General Law Enforcement topics. . John is also a certified instructor in RAD (Rape Aggression Defense Training) and is certified in SWAT, Less Lethal and Chemical 
Munitions, Police Bike Patrol, Internal Affairs and Community Oriented Policing School. He is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and is currently a Captain in the Indiana Army National Guard. He served a year in Afghanistan as the security chief for the Commanding General while in country.
John and his wife Karen have been married for more than 17 years and have two sons, Blake and Matthew. John enjoys coaching baseball and football. He and his sons like to fish and John loves all types of water sports (water skiing, knee boarding, wake boarding, etc.). He and his family attend The Blessed Sacrament and participate in activities there as well. John has learned over the years to leave his work at the office and works hard to keep it that way (Karen and the boys appreciate this too :) ).
The Department
As for the Department, it presently has 47 sworn officers, and 19 civilians who take care of the dispatching, Parking Control/Animal Control, clerical work, housekeeping, and maintenance. Presently the Department has officers assigned to the following special teams/duties:
- SRT/SWAT (Special Response Team)
- CIT (Crisis Intervention Team)
- County Task Force,
- FACT (Fatal Alcohol Crash Team)
- County Task Force,
- K-9 (Officer Dunscomb and his dog Kay),
- An Officer is assigned to the Tippecanoe County Drug Task Force
- Bike Patrol (Officers Slifer and Shepherd)
- DARE (Officer Slifer)
- RAD (Rape Aggression Defense Training) Deputy Chief Walker, Officer’s Slifer, Choate, Ferguson, Shepherd, Hetrick, and Detective Marion.
WLPD RAD Team
The Deputy Chief’s role
John served the City as Deputy Chief for the past four years. The Deputy Chief handles many administrative duties including:
- Directing, supervising and evaluating the Division Commanders (both Patrol and Criminal Investigation), and the Administrative Manager, while assuring adherence to the mission of the West Lafayette Police Department.
- Serves as the Traffic Commander for the City and serve as a Check Point Agent for the Tippecanoe County Technical Highway Committee and the West Lafayette Traffic Commission.
- Maintains files of all crashes and assist code enforcement and development personnel with abandoned/junk vehicles and over occupancy investigations
- Oversees all special traffic details (X-Mas Parade, 4th of July, Football Season, etc).
- Coordinates and manages the School Crossing Guards
- Attends meetings and functions directed by the Chief.
- Serve as the City’s Ambassador for the employees of the police department, other city departments, area public safety agencies and the West Lafayette Community.
John has been a strong advocate of the City’s Adopt-A-Cop program, where WLPD officer work closely with neighborhood residents and businesses in West Lafayette to improve communications, reduce crime, and extend Community Oriented Policing.
What’s next for the Department?
John identified the following areas that the WLPD plans to improve:
- Working closer with our Neighborhood Associations
- Formulate a better plan on how to address the increase in vandalism that takes place throughout the city.
- We must also continue our strong presence in our problem HUD housing areas, where drug and other criminal activity are on the rise.
- School Zone Traffic Enforcement needs to be more strictly enforced to reduce the chance of the horrible incident that took place in Lafayette.
What Can We Do To Help?
Information is the most important asset you have. Please keep John and the Department informed of suspicious activity that takes place in the New Chauncey Neighborhood. It’s up to us to be the Department’s eyes and ears as they cannot always be here.
Final Thought
John enjoys his community contact the most – after all as he says, “you learn so much from the people that you meet on the street. That’s what policing is all about and where police work originated, walking the beat.”
If you would like to talk with John, please feel free to call him directly 765.775.5212, but email is the best way to reach him.