After 40 years in law enforcement Pullman Police Chief Gary Jenkins has developed a broader view of what it means to serve a community.

A police job, he said, was a way for him to make a difference at first. Now, after more than four years as police chief, he acknowledges his obligation to make Pullman a better place.

“I really value my connections with the community, and community members, and the university,” he said.

For Jenkins, the goal is maintaining an open-door policy to the people he serves, and always addressing their needs.

Born and raised in Southern California, Jenkins did not always aspire to be a police chief — during high school, he wanted to become a commercial airline pilot. However, with the Vietnam War ending, and more experienced pilots entering the workforce, Jenkins had to make a change.

“I took a government class, and for an assignment I went on ride-alongs with different police departments in the area,” he said. “Just after doing that, I got hooked on law enforcement, and decided that’s what I wanted to do as a career.”

When Jenkins graduated, he joined on at an area police station. After 36 years in southern California law enforcement, Jenkins and his wife decided to relocate to the Pacific Northwest.

“We were just ready to get out of Southern California,” he said.

Jenkins was hired as the police chief in 2010, and since then, has found a comfortable niche in the Palouse.

“We wanted to go somewhere with a sense of community, and we’ve really found that here in Pullman,” Jenkins said.

He described himself as a huge Cougar fan, and attends WSU’s football, basketball, volleyball and soccer games. Additionally, Jenkins volunteers at area nonprofit organizations, including the WSU Student-Athlete Mentor Program.

However, Jenkins said he faces his share of frustration while enforcing the law in a college town. One thing that he sees as a consistent problem — accountability.

“Sometimes we’ll have parents who call, because we’ve arrested their son or daughter,” Jenkins said. “Instead of looking at what happened and what the person did, they are essentially blaming the police department for getting their son or daughter into trouble.”

He described one situation where a parent called the station after their son received a minor in possession of alcohol infraction.

“I had gotten a call from the father, who was just adamant that his son wouldn’t do that — the story was he had found a beer can, picked it up, and was walking toward a trash can to throw it away,” Jenkins said. “He was basically accusing us of victimizing college students, by going out and enforcement these types of laws.”

Jenkins doesn’t let those comments bother him.

“I would rather be criticized for that then allowing a student to to be injured or killed because we weren’t taking that kind of enforcement action,” he said. “Students (at WSU) have been seriously injured or killed as a result of alcohol intoxication, and so we take that part of our job very seriously.”

Jenkins said that he and his staff members try to focus on prevention and education, things that can prevent the necessity of enforcement in the first place.

The one thing that has remained constant for Jenkins is his career is the value of forming local connections. He keeps in touch with old colleagues in California, but has no plans of leaving the area soon. He and his wife have even started talking about their future retirement plans.

“We’re talking very seriously about staying in Pullman, we’ve really come to love the community,” Jenkins said. 

Reporting by Andrew Braddock