HOT SPRINGS — After 26 years in law enforcement, Capt. Shawn Garner of the Arkansas State Police said it surprises some people to learn that he didn’t really dream of being a police officer when he was growing up.
“I didn’t have a real direction when I was in high school,” Garner said. “I joined the New DeRoche Volunteer Fire Department in Hot Spring County when I was going to Bismarck High School. I thought it would be exciting.”
Evidently he did find it exciting, because Garner stayed on as a firefighter and signed up for the first class for training as an emergency medical technician with the ambulance service attached to the Fire Department.
“It was very basic training,” he said, “just extrication and life support. We didn’t have paramedics until later.”
Garner is now commander of state police Troop K in Hot Springs, overseeing 29 commissioned officers who patrol the highways, going through more than 5,200 square miles in Clark, Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Montgomery, Pike and Polk counties.
That’s a big step from a volunteer firefighter, but Garner said it was all a logical progression once he got involved in public service.
“I made several runs where I worked with the [Hot Spring County] Sheriff ’s Office. Then I worked with Ernie Cox, the Hot Spring County coroner, and I was made a deputy coroner, and I worked more with the Sheriff ’s Office,” Garner said. “That was all right out of high school, and it set me in the direction of law enforcement.”
Garner became a member of the Sheriff ’s Office Patrol Division in 1986.
“I was working at National Medical Rentals at the time, but when I got the job with the sheriff ’s patrol, it was a pay cut, but I turned in my notice,” he said.
Working for a sheriff who has to run for office every two years can cause some concern about job security, so after four years, Garner joined the Arkansas State Police.
“It was thought of as the more elite law enforcement for the state, and the pay was certainly better,” Garner said. “I was already a certified officer, but we have our own recruit school, and I had to graduate from that.”
After training, Garner was assigned to Troop C at Trumann in Poinsett County.
“I patrolled the state and U.S. highways, working vehicle collisions and assisting other agencies,” he said. “There might be domestic calls, and I would back up the deputies who responded.”
In 1993, Garner first came to Troop K, which then covered Saline County. He moved to Saline County and lived there until he moved to a log home near Bismarck after becoming the troop’s commander earlier this year.
He was based in Saline County until he joined the State Police Criminal Investigation Division in Little Rock.
“I helped sheriff ’s departments with their criminal investigations in Saline and Grant counties until 1999,” Garner said.
He was promoted to sergeant and returned to the Patrol Division in Little Rock and Pulaski County until 2004, when he rejoined Troop K.
“They made me a lieutenant in 2007, and I became assistant troop commander under Mike Fletcher,” Garner said.
Fletcher retired from the State Police and was elected to the state Legislature in 2010, serving as a state senator, and Garner was named acting commander.
“They made it official on May 10, when they made me a captain,” Garner said. “The pay changed, but the work didn’t.”
Garner said he doesn’t get much time working the highways anymore. He is busy driving his desk to make sure his officers are given their assignments and the support they need, and that all the paperwork is done.
“One day might be very quiet, and the next day we are busy with sharing incident reports and working with the public, who might have some complaints,” he said.
When any complaint comes along, Garner said, he and others review video tapes made from the patrol vehicle to see how things were handled.
However, he said that being the boss, he can choose to get out and take part in traffic checkpoints or saturation patrol.
Away from his desk and patrol car, Garner said, he likes to hunt and fish.
“I have leased some land in Dallas as a hunt club with some friends I grew up with in the DeRoche community and that I went to school with,” he said.
“We have been down there since 1983, and we get along well. I spend a lot of my time there.”
Garner said his home is close enough to DeGray Lake that he can go fishing when he gets home. He said his friends also come to DeGray for an annual fishing trip.
At age 48, there may still be further advancement for Capt. Garner in the state police.
“We are losing a lot of senior staff because they are retiring over the next few years,” he said.
“There will be a lot of positions in Little Rock open. You never know.”
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or wbryan@arkansasonline.com.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 131 on 07/29/2012