CROTHERSVILLE
After two months of serving as a reserve officer with the Crothersville Police Department, Alan Jones learned about an opportunity to work full time.
Officer Chris Cooper was being promoted to assistant chief after J.L. McElfresh resigned to take a job with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
Jones said he had applied to the department about five years ago, so all he had to do was refresh his application.
During Tuesday’s Crothersville Town Council meeting, his hiring was approved by a 4-1 vote with Councilman Lenvel “Butch” Robinson casting the lone nay vote.
The council approved his pay at $16 per hour, which amounts to $34,944 per year working 42 hours each week. That also passed on a 4-1 vote with Robinson saying nay.
Jones’ first day on the job was Friday.
“I appreciate the opportunity, and I feel honored, and I’ll do my best to serve the community,” the 35-year-old said.
Jones completed his 40-hour prebasic training when he started as a reserve officer and has been patrolling the town on his own. He will have to go to the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield within a year of his hire date.
“I’m just going to show up and get it done, get it out of the way because now, it’s just a task that I have to do to come back home and do my job,” Jones said of the academy.
Chief Brent Turner said Jones will bring the ability to do detective work along with being a road officer. Jones’ hiring puts the department back at four full-time officers.
Jones grew up in Commiskey and graduated from Jennings County High School in 2001.
After that, he said he worked some construction jobs until his son was born in 2005.
He then joined the National Guard and went through training. About a year later, he went active duty in the Army.
“At that time, I was pulling double duty as active duty and National Guard,” he said.
He was based at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville but was stationed in various places, including Kentucky, Georgia and Maryland.
“Once I got to a certain point in my military career, they pretty much wouldn’t deploy me, so they said, ‘You’re going to stay here and train everybody that goes overseas,'” he said.
He started out as a track vehicle mechanic, and his performance in that role led to him attending airborne school in January 2007 at Fort Benning, Georgia, to be in infantry airborne.
“It made me grow a lot faster,” Jones said of his military service. “Going into the Army lower enlisted as a track vehicle mechanic and then immediately reclassing and going infantry airborne, you definitely get a full-circle sense of the meaning of serving.”
After he left the military in 2013, he did some tree work until deciding to pursue a longtime passion — law enforcement.
“I had wanted to be in law enforcement for pretty much since I can remember,” Jones said. “Every few years or so, I would apply to a police department, and I’ve been still kind of chasing it.”
Since he already had applied at Crothersville, he decided to get involved as a reserve officer. That led into applying for the full-time opening.
“It has always been in the back of my mind. It has always been there eating at me,” he said, smiling. “I refreshed my application, and the next thing I know, I’m in the hiring process again. Now, I’m here. It’s like a dream come true.”
He’s excited about continuing to work with Turner, Cooper and the other full-time officer, Matt Browning.
“I want to complete my training and serve the community,” he said.
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Name: Alan Jones
Age: 35
Hometown: Commiskey
Residence: Crothersville
Education: Jennings County High School (2001)
Military: National Guard and Army (2005 to 2013)
Occupation: Recently hired as a full-time officer for the Crothersville Police Department; also serves with the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department
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