Carpenter to retire after nearly 25 years as a Poplar Bluff police officer

When Kenny Carpenter joined the Poplar Bluff Police Department nearly 25 years ago he attained something he had wanted since his youth.

“I wanted to be a police officer; it was something I always wanted to do even back in high school,” Carpenter explained. “I remember sitting out at the high school, talking to the security guards … one of them was a retired police officer.”

A career in law enforcement, Carpenter said, was something that had “always interested me, growing up watching ‘Adam 12.’

“It was like a reality-type police show, but it wasn’t. Everything seemed real; it was something that fascinated me.”

Law enforcement also was something Carpenter anticipated being his career.

Retirement “was my goal,” Carpenter said. “I planned on retiring from the Poplar Bluff Police Department.”

Carpenter will fulfill that goal on Oct. 1 when he retires.

A party in honor of Carpenter’s retirement will be held at 2 p.m. Oct. 4 at the police station, 1111 Poplar St.

“There was an event that occurred in my personal life the first week of August that made me research” retirement, Carpenter explained. “ … After doing the research and talking with my wife, we decided to go ahead and call it.”

Carpenter said the time is right in his life now to move on and explore something different.

Carpenter began his career as a reserve officer in May 1994, and nine months later was hired as a full-time patrolman on March 6, 1995.

When Carpenter decided to go to the police academy, he was working at Kroger, the only other job he has ever had.

Carpenter recalled a conversation with his mother while in his 11th year at Kroger.

“My mom said, ‘I don’t know why you don’t do what you always talked about as a kid,’” Carpenter said. “… She said, ‘all you ever talked about was being a police officer.’

“That was when a light bulb came on.”

Carpenter subsequently went to the police department, where he spoke with then Capt. Bennie Griffin.

“He encouraged me to go to the police academy, then come and sign up for the reserves,” Carpenter said. “… Everything fell into place.

“I got on the reserves” and later was hired full time after spending a “lot of time working as a reserve.”

During the early years of his career, Carpenter said, he enjoyed investigating traffic crashes.

“I was recognized by my lieutenant, Lt. (Tom) Brown (who) recommended that I go to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash investigation school,” explained Carpenter, who completed two different certifications as an advanced crash investigator.

Then, in 2005, Carpenter said, he was selected to be on the Missouri STARS (Statewide Traffic Accident Records System) committee.

Carpenter said he went to Jefferson City, Missouri, once a month for about a year or so as the committee redesigned the crash report now being used by departments across the state.

Other highlights, he said, were the three times he worked in what was then called the department’s Criminal Investigation Bureau as a detective, temporarily filling in for detectives who were gone.

“I really enjoyed that,” he said. “I got to work a lot of major cases” during those times.

Carpenter also has enjoyed being involved in so many people’s lives, as well as being able to help people and make a difference in their lives.

“I always considered myself a problem solver,” Carpenter said. “When I would take a call, it did not necessarily end up in a police report because I was able to work the situation out between the victim and suspect …

“I always took pride in that.”

Carpenter recalled a DWI arrest he made on Harper Street early in his career when he pulled a man over on a motorcycle.

When Carpenter took the man to the Butler County jail, which then was located on the fourth floor of the courthouse, he said, the man “started fighting me. I had to fight him all the way up and get him in the jail.

“He acted like a bad dude. He had long hair (and) kind of looked like (he as in) a motorcycle gang.”

A year or so later, while working the Black River Festival held in July, Carpenter said, a man came up to him.

“He was clean cut, short hair, face shaven, and he said, ‘Officer Carpenter,’” Carpenter said. “I turned around; he said, ‘I just want to thank you.’”

Carpenter said he didn’t recognize the man.

When Carpenter asked what he had done, he recalled the man asking whether Carpenter remembered the motorcyclist he had arrested. Carpenter subsequently was told he had saved the man’s life by arresting him.

Carpenter said the man told him he had not had a drink since that night and had begun going to Alcoholic’s Anonymous.

“That was really what it’s all about, to be able to affect someone’s life like that just by doing your job,” Carpenter said.

As Carpenter looks toward retirement, he said, he will miss the excitement of the job, especially being on patrol, something he always enjoyed.

“The nature of the job is high adrenaline,” he said. “Every time you get that call/dispatch, you never know what it is going to be.”

As for the future, he said, it’s a bit unknown at this time.

“I think going ahead and doing this now presents some opportunities to me that I might not otherwise have know about or looked into,” Carpenter said.

“ … I don’t think I’m going to sit in the house and not do anything.”

For now, Carpenter said, he will be spending time with his wife, Karla, and dog, Kai.

“I thank my wife for making all this possible,” said Carpenter, who met his wife in June 2009 during a “bad time” in his personal life.

“She changed my focus on life (and) she changed my life for the better,” he said. “I never would have made it without her and her support.”