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Lee's Summit Police Department gets New PIO
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Lee's Summit Police Department gets New PIO
September 18, 2010
Sgt. Chris Depue, left and Sgt. Michael Childs, right discuss changes to take place on Monday.
Tribune Photo / Fred Poese
By Debbie Van Pelt
Although he’s “hitting the road,” so to speak, Sgt. Michael Childs, the Lee’s Summit Police Department’s well-known Public Information Officer (PIO), wouldn’t think of actually “going” anywhere. Sgt. Childs has been with the Lee’s Summit Police Department for 21 years, and that’s where he intends to stay. However, after serving as PIO for the past eight years, Childs has decided to return to active patrol duty as a Patrol Sergeant. Stepping into the PIO position, effective Monday, September 20, is Sgt. Christopher Depue. Childs will work alongside Depue in a supportive role during Depue’s first four weeks in the position.
When asked if he has any regrets about leaving the PIO office, Childs said, “I wholeheartedly enjoyed this position. It’s a very important position. I never lost sight of how important it was to get the proper information out.” He further explained that having a Public Information Officer in the department frees up dispatchers to focus on more urgent calls. In addition to providing details to the press and the general public, the PIO is currently responsible for supervising five other employees and for coordinating the department’s hiring and recruiting efforts. Childs added, “We typically receive from 500-700 applications each year, so that’s a big part of the job, too.”
As Patrol Sergeant, Childs will be working the midnight shift – until the 2011 shift bid process takes place in January. He will be front-line supervisor of six to eight officers. He said, “I am excited about every aspect of returning to patrol. Every one of us started from this position. It’s where we made ourselves, proved ourselves. As a patrol officer you go out and do the best you can every day and then come in and start fresh the next day. The generational gap will be interesting because there’s about a 20-year difference in my age and most of the officers I’ll be supervising. In fact, I processed the employee files of most of the officers on the midnight shift.” The only negative Childs could think of regarding patrol work was “working in the elements when it’s snowing or raining. Nobody really likes that.”
Some of the other positions Childs has held with the Lee’s Summit Police Department include being the department’s first canine officer from 1992-1998 and serving as the city’s D.A.R.E. officer from 1998-2001. D.A.R.E. stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, the highly acclaimed national program that gives kids skills to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs and violence. Childs became Public Information Officer in 2002, and was promoted to Sergeant in 2005.
Chris Depue moved to Lee’s Summit in 1986, when he was in junior high school. As a high school student, Depue landed a part-time job at Lee’s Summit’s City Hall, and it was contacts made in that job that made him realize he wanted to become a policeman. He says he can still remember how excited he was 20 years ago, when he got hired as a police dispatcher at only 19 years of age. Depue earned several promotions through the years, moving from dispatcher to police officer to narcotics detective to department training coordinator. He was promoted to Patrol Sergeant in 2007. Having the rank of sergeant is a prerequisite for the PIO position.
Depue has been working the midnight shift for the past three years, and welcomes his new office hours of 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Although Childs warns that the Public Information Officer’s post requires a commitment of 24-hour availability, Depue says he is excited about his new challenge. He said, “This will be a completely different job for me, and I’ll be able to develop new skill sets.”
Family is important to Depue, who is married and has an 11-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter. He said he feels like he has a second family at work. “Five to seven people report to me, and we’re like family. You become attached and form a tight bond. I’ll miss working closely with them, even though we’ll see each other on occasion. But, I’m sure they’re happy I got this opportunity.” In his new position, Depue will interface with media and the public, do background investigations and polygraphs on job applicants and supervise four police services officers and the crime prevention officer.
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