Shelley’s Police Chief reflects on his 30 years in law enforcement

SHELLEY — With 30 years under his belt, Shelley’s Chief of Police is retiring.

Chief Rod Mohler announced earlier this month that he is retiring at the end of May. Mohler has served as Shelley’s Police Chief for 10 years and a total of 30 years in law enforcement.

“You stay somewhere for so long, you just don’t want to go; it becomes home,” Mohler said. “I thought, ‘you know, I’ve missed out on the first 30 years of kid’s life during my career,’ I made a decision that I wasn’t going to do that with my grandkids.”

Mohler’s law enforcement career began in July of 1992 in Shelley.

“I put myself through the level one academy at night to become a level one while holding a full-time job and putting 40-50 hours reserve time in for free at night. Along with having a wife and a young family,” he said.

After graduating from the academy, the Shelley chief of police, at the time, hired Mohler full-time. He remained in Shelley from 1992 to 1995.

“Then I switched over to the Sheriff’s Office – Bingham County. I had a wonderful time. Worked with some wonderful people there. They’re all either gone or retiring too,” he said.

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In 2003, Mohler had the opportunity to return to the Shelley PD, which he took with the hopes of working up through the ranks to one day become chief.

He was hired as Shelley’s Police Chief in 2012.

“There’s two types of law enforcement, in my opinion. You have your big-city law enforcement and you have your small-town law enforcement. There is a difference. There is a huge difference on how you’re able to operate, the things you can do and how you have time to interact with people.

“I stayed here because I enjoyed that aspect of it. I can take time to help someone. It’s not just, go to a call, fix a problem and go. I could have done that, but that’s not ever been my style, anything I’ve ever wanted to do. If I was going to do the bad things, then I wanted to be able to experience the good things too. And that is to help people. A small town allows you to do that,” Mohler said.

He said one of the hardest lessons he’s learned over his career is that law enforcement is not able to fix every problem all the time.

“One of my biggest problems is everything is very personal. I take everyone’s problems on and I want to fix it. I want to help it, I want to fix it, make it better. Whether it’s mine, my officers, my community, everything becomes very personal,” he said.

He explained that he believes that is his curse and also one of his biggest gifts.

“Being able to do that, I’ve been able to reach people that some — most — can’t. Because I can actually put some of my safety aside to get into where they weren’t expecting it to open them up and I can actually help. The downside to that is you can’t just turn it off,” Mohler said.

He said one of the highlights of his career is seeing how his work has affected someone years after he was called out to help them.

“I would help a knucklehead when he was 22 and being stupid. Now, I’m getting to see them change and grow and get married and have kids. And actually come back to me and go, ‘thank you,'” Mohler said.

On May 31, Mohler’s last day on the job, there will be a retirement open house at Shelley City Hall from 1 to 3 p.m. to celebrate Mohler’s 30 years of service.