Leading Tiffin patrol division has been ‘most rewarding’ career move for deputy

TIFFIN — Building a police department from the ground up is a daunting task, but Johnson County sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Hynes has been relishing the challenge.

Hynes, who started leading the Tiffin patrol division of the sheriff’s office last July, said he “jumped all over” the opportunity” to form an environment built on positive relationships between law enforcement and the community.

“We have spent twice as much time interacting with the community, whether it be public relations or in another way, other than enforcement,” Hynes, 45, told The Gazette during an interview at the division’s office in Tiffin City Hall.

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“We want them to look past the uniform and see we are people, too. I don’t see it as just me serving the city of Tiffin — I am part of the community,” Hynes said.

He and Deputy Cody O’Hare, also assigned to the full-time day shift with the Tiffin division, have been focusing on building those relationships with businesses, schools, city officials and community members since last July when a five-year contract between Tiffin and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office was approved.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office contracts with several small cities in the county to provide law enforcement services so those communities don’t have to fund their own departments. But as Tiffin rapidly grew, the two entities began discussing ways to provide more consistent coverage for the city.

Sheriff Brad Kunkel said Hynes has a “big responsibility — being the face” of the division. But he knew Hynes would a good fit for the challenge.

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“Sgt. Hynes doesn’t shy away from tasks given him and takes everything seriously,” Kunkel said.

Hynes, going on his ninth year with sheriff’s office, expressed an interest early on and he had the “breadth and depth of experience” needed for the role, Kunkel noted.

Chicago experience helps now

Hynes said his experience with the department and then the 12 years he spent the Chicago Police Department gave him a different perspective and more diverse experiences. He joined the sheriff’s office in 2004, left in 2007 for Chicago, and came back in 2019.

“I was young and looking for more excitement and wanted to work for an urban area,” Hynes said. “I was assigned to the jail when I started here (in Johnson County), as every recruit does.”

Hynes, who grew up just outside of Peoria, Ill., went to the University of Iowa and majored in health promotion, which focuses on health care rehabilitation and prevention. After graduating, he worked as a personal trainer and ran the day-to-day operations of a fitness facility — but decided it wasn’t for him.

His friend who was a deputy encouraged him to apply, and he was hired. He worked in the jail and served on the recovery dive team and special response team before leaving and joining the Chicago department.

Hynes worked patrol in Chicago and served in a variety of communities, learning how to connect with different cultures in the large city. One week he was working in a Polish neighborhood, the next might be in Chinatown or a Hispanic neighborhood, he said.

He acknowledges that he may not have those diverse cultural differences in Tiffin, but those experiences taught him how to adapt and respond, which he said has helped him in this leadership role.

Being able to build those longer term relationships wasn’t always possible in Chicago. The Chicago department was pushing community policing, but it was difficult to achieve, he said. There were 24 districts when he was there, but community members didn’t see the same officers on a daily basis to build those relationships.

His decision to leave Chicago came down to the violence and crime rate by 2019. As a Chicago officer, he was required to live within the city limits, so he and his wife decided it was best for their family to come back to Johnson County.

He doesn’t regret his experiences in Chicago because it continued to help him back in Johnson County. He gained crowd control training, for examples, so he could help prepare Iowa City for the marches protesting the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

Hynes came back and worked in the jail and had been a supervisor when he interviewed to head up the Tiffin division.

“I’ve never had this kind of opportunity before,” Hynes said.

‘One of the most rewarding experiences’

This last year, he’s been able to see the difference he and O’Hare are making in Tiffin.

They both go into the schools and the kids are now recognizing them and are not hesitant to interact with them. They talk to the students and teachers not because they are called for law enforcement issues but to build rapport. They also attend extracurricular and sporting events and are now meeting the students’ families.

Hynes said he and O’Hare have done the much same thing with businesses in Tiffin. The deputies want merchants to know they are around every day, so if something bad does happen they may be more willing to talk and help solve the problem.

“Something else happens that doesn’t in a big city,” Hynes said. “While driving around during my shift, I get waved at 15-20 times. It’s extremely nice. Now, kids will come running out to say hi. I stop and give them stickers.”

In the last few years before there was much law enforcement presence, Hynes said there were many construction burglaries because of the numerous commercial and residential building projects in Tiffin, which remains one of the fastest growing cities in the state. However, those have decreased.

The sheriff’s division worked with city officials on traffic enforcement issues in many of areas to help prepare for planned projects, such as the entertainment area on Park Road that will include five condo buildings with office and residential space and a Homemakers furniture store.

Overall, the crime rate in Tiffin is “not much at all,” Hynes said. The number of speeding offenses on Park Road has decreased and most of the offenses include drunken driving, theft and disturbance calls. Of course, Hynes said that doesn’t mean there are no challenges to deal with occasionally.

The most recent happened last week. He had a call for “cow out.”

“I had no clue what to do,” Hynes said, laughing. “Calls about a cow running through their backyards on the northwest side.”

Then the cow was spotted running west along Highway 6, but the owner had tracked it down. By the time Hynes caught up with him, he had managed to surround the cow in a field.

“What I’ve learned is when you think you have seen it all or you think you’ve handled everything, something else comes up,” Hynes said.

Hynes is excited the division will be expanding with two more deputies who start in July. They will be full-time on the overnight shift. Hynes and O’Hare will remain on the day shift.

There has been 24/7 law enforcement since last year, but now it will be the same deputies instead of different ones working out of the sheriff’s office on the overnight shift. Two additional deputies will join the Tiffin division the following fiscal year, according to the five-year contract with the city.

“In my 21 years in law enforcement, this has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve been involved with,” Hynes said. “But it does take the right person for the job.”

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com