After 33.5 years in law enforcement, Ridgeland’s Chief John Neal retired on June 30 and stepped away from the career. He started his career on January 27 of 1989 and served his entire career at the Ridgeland Police Department.
Neal said law enforcement has always been his passion, however stereotypical it may sound as many kids grow up believing they want to be a police officer, doctor or firefighter. He started school at Southern Mississippi and, during his first year, he had the opportunity to be around some law enforcement officers in a small rural county.
“Seeing them work and just the excitement that law enforcement brought to a young 19 year old intrigued me enough that I went and changed my major over to criminal justice,” Neal said. “That was the start of the career that I wanted at that point. It all started at 19 years old.”
While the climate around law enforcement on a national level has changed from when Neal first started on this career path which has changed the way policing is done and created a challenge of recruiting officers, Neal said what helped him overcome those challenges and stay in the field was a servant’s heart.
“You don’t get into this because you want to fix all the world’s problems,” Neal said. “You just want to do your part and take care of those who have entrusted you to do this job.”
He said it is each officer’s job to serve and protect in whatever area they are in.
“You serve and protect the best you can in your area and I think, if you approach each day like that, then your challenge each day is to leave your community a little bit better and safer than when you started the day and you’re successful,” Neal said. “If you do those throughout a career, you can make a huge impression, not only on you as an individual but in the community that you serve.”
This servant’s heart is what Neal’s advice for younger officers revolves around.
“Stay focused, and don’t let the negativity in the world about this profession distract you from doing what your calling is,” Neal said. “I truly believe people don’t get into this profession strictly for the money, the status that it brings, or what you can do to help other people. I think it is a true calling and, if you don’t have a servant’s heart, then you are going to miss the boat.”
Neal said 30 years is a long time to stay in law enforcement, but his advice is to stay focused on what their purpose is and what their servant’s heart is driving them to do.
Neal spent his entire 33-plus years in law enforcement at the Ridgeland Police Department and credits this to the people he worked for. He said he was fortunate that when he expressed something that interested him, they let him explore it and find different avenues and paths in law enforcement.
“They would allow me to pursue those opportunities, so I never felt like I was secluded from professional development and I was building my career from doing things that I was interested in to make myself a better officer but also bring a better officer to the community that we serve,” Neal said. “I was never searching for a greener pasture. My pastures were always green here.”
Neal said everyone was great to him all the way from the mayor’s office and city government administration to the police department and the chiefs, commanders and lieutenants he has worked under. He said the people who have in turn worked under him have also made him a better person by doing a great job and causing him to want to invest back into those people.
He said the biggest thing he learned during his career in law enforcement was that things aren’t always as black and white as the world would like them to be.
“Law enforcement officers have a great deal of discretion in how we conduct business, and it can be a dangerous thing but it can also be a very valuable tool,” Neal said. “When you can look at the gray areas of those situations and make it work for the situation that you are currently in to help somebody, I think it is a very powerful tool for law enforcement to possess.”
Neal said laws can be black and white, but if officers stuck by the black and white laws of the world, there wouldn’t be any opportunities for law enforcement to help people.
“As long as we can operate in the gray area some and help our citizens and help our communities be better and to get through challenging times, I think having officers discretion to work in that gray area is certainly a very powerful tool for us,” Neal said.
Neal said the two things he will miss most about his job in law enforcement are the comradery of the police department and the opportunity to help the community each day.
“I certainly will miss the people in the department,” Neal said. “This has been a family and home for me for 33.5 years and to leave these people and not see them every day is really high on that list of things I’ll miss.”
He said he will also miss being able to go into the community and discover the needs in Ridgeland and if the police department can be a part of the solution. He enjoys the role in making Ridgeland better and spearheading the efforts to be better.
“I love the community,” Neal said. “I grew up here, I went to high school here, I came back after college, and I wanted to work here. So, I’m invested in this community and making sure that it’s the best that it can possibly be with anything that I can help with. Even though I’m leaving the chief’s office and the police department, I’m still a resident of Ridgeland and I’m going to be involved in some way, form or fashion with making sure that we are the best we can be.”
Neal doesn’t have a plan yet for what his next step is after retirement beyond taking a vacation with his family.
“There’s nothing that is on the books right now,” Neal said. “I’m going to go on family vacation for the first ten days and, as soon as I get back, I’m going to spend a bit of time with the family. My wife owns a small business here in the metro area so I’m going to help her out with that, and I’ll just kind of catch my breath and figure out what it is that’s going to fulfill me the way these last 33 years have.”
When asked what his favorite day in law enforcement has been, Neal said “every one of them.”
“Every day has been fun,” Neal said. “Each day in this profession brings a different challenge. You wake up in the morning or you put on the gun belt to come work a night shift, and you never know what you are going to get out of that day.”
He said regardless if it is a calm and peaceful day of traffic stops or a more busy day, the life of a police officer is nonstop until you go home and that is the excitement of law enforcement.
“You are doing something different every day,” Neal said. “You never know what community member is going to need your service or guidance or help and being afforded the opportunity to do that for 33.5 years made every day a good day.”
