23-year law enforcement veteran named deputy police chief
Story and Photo By David Blanchette
Matt Martin has experienced a lot during his 23 years in law enforcement.
“I wish I’d kept a journal, that I’d written down what just happened each day when I got off work,” Martin said. “There’s so much that has happened that I’ve probably forgotten a lot of the things I experienced.”
Had he kept that journal, Martin’s newest entry would be his appointment as Deputy Chief of the Jacksonville Police Department that became effective in October. Martin has been employed with the local department for 20 years and is now second in command behind newly-appointed JPD Chief Doug Thompson.
“When I made lieutenant I felt like that was the top of Mount Everest for me, but the deputy chief opportunity came up and I put in for it,” Martin said. “I really appreciate Chief Thompson for giving me this chance.”
Martin was born and raised in Jacksonville, graduated from Jacksonville High School in 1994, and attended Illinois College for two-and-a-half years, where he played baseball. Martin then transferred to Western Illinois University and graduated with a degree in law enforcement in 1999. He held several security jobs before deciding to apply for a police officer’s job.
“I moved up around Chicago and tested for some departments there, but realized that wasn’t for me,” Martin said. “So I came back down to this area and actually got hired by the White Hall Police Department.”
Martin worked for the White Hall department from 2001 through 2004, when he was hired as a patrolman with the Jacksonville Police Department. He was promoted to sergeant in 2014 and later to lieutenant. Martin has worked with the department’s street crimes unit and as the field training officer for the Special Response Team, the department’s version of SWAT.
“Jacksonville is a small town but we have big city problems, just at a lesser rate,” Martin said. “So I’ve seen pretty much everything during my years on patrol. It’s the job I always wanted and it’s fulfilled everything I had hoped for.”
Martin realizes that being deputy chief is a big change from being on patrol, but he will use his two decades of experience to try and improve the situation for the men and women who currently protect the city.
“We have two day shifts and two night shifts and I want everybody to be on the same page with everything, the way we do things and how we are structured and organized,” Martin said. “I don’t want to micromanage the shifts, but want to make sure there is communication between the shifts to keep things operating smoothly. The department has been really well run for a long time so I want to keep that status quo, and implement new ideas if they could work.”
Martin enjoys the camaraderie of his fellow officers and feels that is one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a police officer.
“You get really tight and close with each other, there’s a lot of joking between us, it’s kind of like a family,” Martin said. “I’ve made a lot of friendships with the people here, and many of us do things together outside of work.”
Martin has wanted to be a police officer since he was a kid “and I saw police cars flying by,” but he feels the profession is still misunderstood by many citizens.
“There is a disconnect with the community many times because they think that police officers are completely different than they are,” Martin said. “But basically we are exactly alike. We just happen to have a job with a badge, uniform, and the power to arrest people. Other than that we have the same issues in and out of work as everybody else.”
Martin feels the citizens of Jacksonville give the local department more support than the police receive in other communities.
“Even when the Ferguson, Missouri events were occurring and people in a lot of cities hated the police, we were well supported here and there were never any real issues,” Martin said. “As a whole I think the community supports us and they are glad we are here.”
Martin and his wife, Rachel, are glad to be members of the community. Rachel Martin is the bar manager for Future Champions Sports Complex, and their 27-year-old son Adam works as a social media marketing manager in the Chicago area. Sixteen-year-old son Elias attends Jacksonville High School and is a key player on the golf team.
“I’m very happy to have come back to Jacksonville and gotten this job,” Matt Martin said. “This is a good town to raise a family and to be a police officer.”
Martin said technology has changed law enforcement during his 23 years in the profession. He has seen the introduction of computers into all patrol vehicles, and body cameras mean that everything officers do is recorded. But the things that haven’t changed, and which are recorded on those body cameras, are the strange behaviors that people continue to display.
“It has happened numerous times throughout my career, people are intoxicated and they end up completely nude running around parts of town,” Martin said with a chuckle. “We obviously need to go deal with that person and figure out why they are doing that. I know they don’t start off that way, but for whatever reason the substance they ingest makes them lose their clothing. There have been many times that I’ve seen that on this job.”
