For Deputy Dallas Mauk of the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office, every day is a learning experience.
Mauk, 26, has worked for Lonoke County for 4 1/2 years, working his way up from jailer to patrolman. He was recently honored as the 2018 Lonoke County Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.
“It’s pretty cool just to be acknowledged for going above and beyond,” Mauk said.
One of the reasons Mauk was honored, Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley said, was because he saved the life of a shooting victim on Christmas 2017 on Johnson Road near Scott.
“Dallas showed up on Christmas morning, and there was a horrific scene,” Staley said. “A homicide, attempted homicide and kidnapping — he had the wherewithal to put a tourniquet on this guy and save his life. That led to the identification of a suspect and helped us solve a case.
“He’s a good deputy who goes above and beyond. He takes multiple calls a week. He works his shift. He loves his community. He doesn’t do it for the money. He does it because he cares.”
Mauk said the call for the shooting came before midnight Dec. 24.
“We got down there and found out some people had been shot,” Mauk said. “We went into the house and cleared it. There were two people shot, and one was already deceased. With the other one, that is where my training took hold. I applied a tourniquet to him, and I got some information from him about someone possibly being kidnapped as well.
“After that, we cleared the scene and secured it and waited for the investigators to get there and let them do their job.”
Mauk said his instincts just went to work during that situation, which is one of only three shooting calls he’s responded to in his two-plus years on patrol.
“When you are put in that situation, you don’t really think about it a whole lot. … You just kind of do it,” he said. “All I knew was that people had been shot. There was someone there bleeding out pretty badly, and I knew I had to step up and do something.”
Mauk said it’s the toughest call he’s been on during his career with the Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m fortunate in that in each of those three calls, you learn something,” he said. “It’s not good that we have to be there because we don’t want to have to be there. As far as experience and knowledgewise, that helps me in the long run.”
Mauk was born in Oklahoma City but moved to Arkansas when he was 1 year old. He lived in Lonoke and White County most of his life and was home-schooled, graduating in 2010. At that point, he attended college for a while but didn’t think that was for him.
“My grandparents wanted me to go,” he said. “I wasn’t 100 percent sure what I wanted to do at that point.”
He worked at Walmart in Lonoke.
“I think I was 20 when I really started considering getting into law enforcement,” Mauk said. “My dad (Randy Mauk, who is the Lonoke chief of police) had done it for over 20 years. It’s one of those things that is kind of in the family, in the bloodline.”
Mauk said he applied at the Jacksonville Police Department, but because of hiring freezes, he was never hired there.
“That’s when I decided to come over to the county,” he said. “Dad said he could get me an application, so he did. I took a pay cut coming from Walmart to work at the jail.”
Mauk’s hire date was Feb. 14, 2014, and he worked as a jailer for well over a year before being promoted to patrolman. At that point, he attended the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy in East Camden. He was there from September to December 2015.
“It was a good experience,” Mauk said. “It was a lot of classroom stuff, a lot of PowerPoint stuff.”
East Camden is home to the original police academy for the state. There are now two others in Springdale and Little Rock.
“Camden is the rite of passage for law enforcement,” Mauk said. “If you went to Camden, you’ve experienced the Camden life. We had a good time. We learned a lot. At the end of the day when class let out, we had a good time with our fellow officers. I think we graduated with a little over 100. It was a good, fun experience. I learned a lot.
“It was a stepping stone to my career as far as patrol. You never quit learning on this job.”
After returning to Lonoke County, Mauk went through the Field Training Officers Program.
“They put you in a car with seasoned officers who are field training officers,” Mauk said. “They taught me the the roads of Lonoke County. They taught me how to be a deputy here. Even though you go to the academy to get training, working here is probably going to be different than say Little Rock or Searcy or even Lonoke city. We operate just a little different.”
Mauk became a full-time patrolman in early March 2016.
“It’s a very interesting job as far as what you see on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “Some things that you do, as far as your reports, are just repetitive. Other times, you learn something new every day when you’re doing your job.”
Mauk said he’s not in law enforcement for the money.
“I definitely do it for the job,” he said. “I don’t do it for the money or the praise. I’m simply here because I like helping my community. That’s the basics of it.”
Mauk currently works a 5-5 shift.
“I check in at about 15 minutes until 5 a.m.,” he said. “From there, I’ll come up to the station and check my box and make sure I don’t have anything, such as reports, kick back that need to be fixed. After that, I’ll leave the office and drive around on patrol.”
Mauk said he enjoys driving the back roads of Lonoke County, letting the citizens know he is there.
“I pretty much have made more of a career out of patrolling and taking calls than I have from making traffic stops,” he said. “I’m not saying that I don’t do traffic stops, because I do. But it’s not something that I’m going out looking for. Sometimes, I’ll see someone going a little too fast, and I’ll flash my lights at them just to say slow down.”
However, Mauk will make a traffic stop if he sees a driver that looks like he is “up to no good.”
“A lot of those types of situations might lead to meth or some weed,” he said. “If there’s dope, then people might be out there trying to steal stuff. Thieving and drugs go hand in hand.”
Mauk said he can see himself advancing at the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office.
“I like being on patrol,” he said. “I’ll always consider myself a road deputy. But as far as advancing myself, it is something that I want to do, as far as making detective one day. Honestly, I love working here. I can’t say for sure that I’d never go somewhere else. You never know. You honestly never know.”
Mauk said being a detective would help him gain more knowledge in law enforcement.
“In the job, the more training you have, the more knowledge you have in different fields, the better off you are,” he said. “It applies to just about everything you do in life.”
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.