Skagway officials hired a new police chief Thursday night. The position had been open for 8 months until the borough decided interim chief Jerry Reddick had earned the title.

Borough officials took time to find the right hire for the police chief position after Ray Leggett resigned abruptly in October. At its regularly scheduled meeting, the assembly approved the six-figure salary and benefits package for the new Chief of Police  Jerry “JJ” Reddick. He’s served less than three years on Skagway’s police force, but he’s worked in law enforcement since the late 90s.

Reddick first entered public service after a stint in the military. He started as a first responder working as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Eureka Springs Arkansas then moved into the sheriff’s department.

“I got into dispatching which in our Sheriff’s Department, it was dispatching and jail. So we kind of did both. And I was hooked. I wanted to be a part of that. And I kind of felt like my way of giving back,” said Reddick.

He would go on to work as a patrolman and a detective. He worked for the narcotics division and eventually with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI drug task force. From there he went on to a Lieutenant position in the Sheriff’s office, and that’s where he heard about Skagway. Fellow officer Mark Morris was about to resign his position and move to the remote Southeast Alaska community.

“I’m always about giving somebody the Attaboy and go and do better things and try to better yourself. He wound up telling me he was coming to Skagway, Alaska. I was like You dirty dog Get out of my office. Alaska has always kind of been one of my dream places to go,” said Reddick.

He was getting ready to run for Sherriff in Arkansas when Morris called and told him Skagway was hiring. So the Reddick family decided to visit, and just before they left for the trip, the borough asked if his wife if she wanted a job as a dispatcher. They told her to pack as if she wasn’t returning to Arkansas. And on their visit to Skagway Mrs. Reddick got the job.

“I want to say she was seven, eight months pregnant. So she was here pregnant by herself. And she started dispatching,” said Reddick.

The Reddicks had fallen in love with the place even before the ferry had landed, the welcoming nature of the community and the stunning scenery sealed the deal. So, the family moved to Skagway in late 2018.

Reddick served as interim police chief after Legget’s departure. And when the interviews for the permanent Chief position started, he was first in line. Assemblyperson Reba Hylton was on the hiring committee. During Thursday’s assembly meeting, she described the moment she realized Reddick was the right person for the job.

“One of the questions that we asked was ‘What do you see as Skagway’s most pressing issue right now?’ It seemed kind of obvious once he said it, but I don’t think I would’ve answered the same way, and I don’t know who else would have. But without skipping a beat Chief Reddick said, ‘Mental health,” claimed Hylton.

Chief Reddick understands the importance of mental health from first-hand experience. As a law enforcement officer, he’s seen everything from petty crime to gruesome murders; and even had to respond to the violent death of a family member.

Reddick said he’s had help dealing with the trauma from those experiences, and when he responds to individuals in crisis, he understands that sometimes they just need someone to talk to.

“Those kinds of PTSD, we have to be vigilant, we have to work through those problems, we have to talk to people. And that’s what I tell people on the street, whenever they’re reaching out for help is we have the same issues as you do. We have to find an outlet for us to be able to speak to somebody to get it out of our head so that we can deal with these problems.”

The department is looking to hire an officer to fill Reddick’s now vacant slot, and potentially a seasonal hire to help with code enforcement during the busy summer seasons to come.