We introduced our readers to Sgt. Don Jensen last summer in an article about the Milwaukee Police Department's Harbor Unit Patrol. At the time, the 25-year veteran of the force was fast approaching retirement. Now, with just days until he turns in his badge, the quiet but introspective officer is looking back on how law enforcement has changed in Milwaukee -- both as a job and how it relates to community.
We caught up with "Boots" Jensen the day he reluctantly signed the papers that would make his mandatory retirement official. It's an emotional moment for Jensen, and even though he didn't really have a choice, he joked about having second thoughts.
Fortunately for Milwaukee, Jensen, 53, isn't planning on spending his retirement on a fishing boat. Instead, he'll continue to work hard on the water safety projects he helped pioneer. In fact, while this interview was supposed to recap of an impressive career, Jensen came prepared with water and ice safety handouts.
Here's the story of a cop who's ready to say farewell to the MPD -- but one who's not done helping Milwaukee.
OMC: What's next for Don Jensen?
Jensen: Everybody always says they want to spend more time with their wife and their grandkids. I also want to continue teaching part-time at a motorcycle school. Quite a few of the committees I've sat on over the years have asked me to stay on as a ad-hoc member for input. And of course the "Learn To Swim" program, that's on the top of my list. I've already talked to the Boys and Girls Club, and we're on the same page about going out and giving talks about water safety. Last year, 160 kids got swimming lessons at county pools. I don't want to just fade off.
OMC: How did you start the swimming program?
DJ: The drowning of the two boys (Quadrevion Henning and Purvis Virginia Parker) was the catalyst that got me going. That night when I was driving up to the drowning scene, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was playing on the classical station. It was a full moon; I'll never forget that. As I was pulling up I was thinking, "Man, there's got to be something better to life." After we pulled the kids out, they were laying there on the tarp. I was looking at them thinking, "There's got to me more that I can do than this." What can I do to prevent drowning, to give information to kids about being safe around water, whether it be a pond, a beach, a river, a creek?
OMC: Being a cop is much more than a job for you, isn't? You take the community service part very seriously.
DJ: Yes. Now, I shouldn't retire (laughing)! The reason I'm conflicted is because I really enjoy doing what I'm doing, but I know that there are things I physically can't do any more. It's 25 and out.
OMC: In 25 years, you've seen a lot of change in this department. What's better? What's worse?
DJ: Do you have an hour? When I first came on the job, it was much different. In 1982, you went to the police academy for the same amount of time as you do now, but the equipment wasn't as good. You didn't have bulletproof vests. You didn't have pepper spray or short batons or the handguns we have now. If the talking didn't work and if you got into a scuffle with someone, you had to use you brawn. It's a lot safer now. The squads are air-conditioned now. Back then, you rolled down two windows and went 20 miles per hour, because the chief at the time said if you had air, you couldn't hear the things going on outside your window.
I worked under Harold Breier, Robert Ziarnik, Chief (Phillip) Arreola, Chief (Art) Jones and Chief (Nan) Hegerty. That's five chiefs. I think that the community has a better pipeline to the upper floor than it did years ago because people are more receptive to ideas about perceptions of the police department. When I first came on, it was "my way or the highway." You didn't really have much of an interaction. Now, people can call and express their ideas to the chief.
DJ: The Police Chief runs the department, but he or she does not do the hiring. The Fire and Police Commission does. So, when you have people who are recommended to not be hired by our background investigators and you have to hire them, you're going to wind up with people you didn't want to begin with. People who shouldn't be on the job, and that needs to change.
And, we are short a little less than 200 coppers. If the Common Council would approve them and let our department staff up, there would be more officers on the street, and that can deter crime on its own.
OMC: What else would you advocate?
DJ: Bringing up the staffing to where it should be. We could be more efficient and do a better job. We're doing a good job with what we have, but it could be better.
OMC: As you get ready to pass the torch, what lessons are you leaving your team? How would you like to be remembered?
DJ: I always wanted to make sure that with all the guys I worked with, if something happened to me, they could step up and take over. I trained the people to do my position. I would like to be remembered as a person who was fair, as a person who cared about his troops. Progressive enough to be able to get equipment that's to today's standards. Some of the equipment we had a few years ago was from the '60s and '70s -- older than some of the guys on the job. When Jones was on the job and I wanted to do firearms training, he told me to stand in the bay at the Police Academy and squirt water on the guys. That's goofy.
OMC: When you took me out in the harbor last summer, you jumped into the cold lake and made your team pull you out. They looked at me like, "I can't stop him, so we might as well play along." Did you lead by example? Was there a lot of trust in your unit?
DJ: You spend more time with these people than you do with the people at home. You build relationships that are long-lasting. You get to know your men and look out for their welfare. You do that how ever you have to, even if that means you have to sacrifice some things. Those are things I learned in the Marine Corps.
OMC: Sounds like you played a father figure role with your team.
DJ: Some of my contemporaries have said that I act too much like their father and not like their sergeant, and I said, "Well, I don't really care what you guys think, because that's the way that I am."
OMC: Are you getting emotional in these final few days?
DJ: Oh yes. I get pretty doggone emotional.
OMC: Your last day is Feb. 19. What are you going to do?
DJ: I'm going to come in at 6:30 a.m., attend role call like I always do, and if the captain asks me to say a few words, I hope that they give me about an hour. No, I'm just going to say thank you for the privilege of working with them. It's been an honor to work in this department.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
