community
march27
2012
Meet Your Police: Vernonia Police Chief
Michael Conner continued from front page
I’ve held,” says Conner. “It was a lot of
fun. People are different when they are
on vacation and they tend to treat you a
little different.”
In 2002 Conner was hired at the
Warms Springs Police Department and
attended the Police Academy that same
year. He worked there until 2004.
“Warm Springs was a differ-
ent experience, a different culture and
I wouldn’t change that experience for
anything,” says Conner. “In fact, I think
just about anyone hired should go there
and work for a couple months just to
see things you will never see again and
learn how to work in a different environ-
ment. I had the opportunity to investi-
gate crimes that I will never see again—
crimes I don’t ever want to see again.
But I received a lot of experience there.”
In late 2004 Conner took a con-
tract with the Toledo, OR Police De-
partment, which gave him a chance to
learn more about Oregon State laws. He
worked for a year as a School Resource
Officer, filling a position held by an of-
ficer who was serving in the military.
When that contract expired,
Conner applied to and was hired by the
Vernonia Police Department in 2005.
He started in Vernonia under Chief Mat-
thew Workman as a Patrol Officer, was
promoted to Sergeant, served as Interim
Chief and has now been hired as Chief.
“I gained a lot of knowledge
working under Chief Workman,” says
Conner. “He was a wealth of knowledge
and a really great guy to work for.”
Conner is married and together
they have three daughters.
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I asked Chief Conner about his
goals for the VPD. “I think over the
last three years we’ve gone through
some struggles between having the ad-
ministration changed around since Matt
Workman left (in 2008),” says Conner.
Conner says he feels things have been
a little unstable and that staffing levels
have gone up and down. “Things started
to get a little bit rocky at that point and I
think there is a trust factor, between the
community and the local law enforce-
ment that comes into play. So my goal
is to try to rebuild that trust—I think that
is very important,” says Conner.
Conner says community in-
volvement is also a priority for his de-
partment. “If we don’t have community
input and support, that can make our job
that much harder,” says Conner. “Once
we are able to rebuild the trust, we get
our officers out there where they are be-
ing noticed and they are making con-
tacts in the community, we are going to
be a better department.”
Conner was reluctant, when
asked, to speak specifically about any
personnel issues that the VPD is cur-
rently dealing with. He did say that hav-
ing an open door and being transparent
will be key to rebuilding trust within the
community. “If people have questions
they want answers to, they need to feel
comfortable coming here and asking
those questions,” says Conner. “Chang-
ing the perception so the community has
knowledge of what we are actually do-
ing will be a huge help.”
Currently only one Vernonia of-
ficer, Brent Thompson, lives in Verno-
nia. In a previous interview, Vernonia
City Administrator Bill Haack says he
does not have a problem with officers
living outside city limits. Chief Conner
says he agrees with this policy. “I don’t
see it as a problem. Obviously there is
some benefit to having officers live here.
I feel it is important for the officers to
have some break. This is a very stress-
ful job. Things can happen very sud-
denly and we deal with death and ma-
jor incidents on a regular basis. Having
that time for the officers to break away
from a work related environment is very
important to their moral, their attitude,
their well-being. They need that break
so they can come back for work and be
fresh. They don’t need to deal with stuff
while they are off duty.”
Conner says that during the last
year when the department was short
staffed was very difficult. But as long
as the VPD is fully staffed with four of-
ficers, he believes where the officers live
is irrelevant to their ability to perform
their job duties.
After dealing with a couple of
weather related issues this past winter,
I asked Conner about Vernonia’s pre-
paredness level in the event of a major
disaster. Conner explained that in the
event of a major disaster he would share
Incident Command duties with local
Fire Department staff. “As law enforce-
ment and fire personnel we deal with
what could be considered ‘major events’
on a regular basis,” says Conner. “They
are on a small scale and most of them
don’t require an Emergency Manage-
3
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Mark Brown
Chip Bubl
Mackenzie Carr
Sonia Spackman
Photography
Scott Laird
Daniel Mullikin
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Vernonia, OR 97064
503-367-0098
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continued on page 12
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