Poplar Bluff's deputy police chief to retire Oct. 1

Donnie Trout learned at a young age about how to treat people and that knowledge served him well during his 30-year career with the Poplar Bluff Police Department.

When Trout became a police officer in 1988, he brought with him what he learned while farming with his dad and other family members, as well as from a former employer, Pete Conover.

“Pete taught me as a kid how to treat people,” as did his first sergeant, Melvin Riley and retired detective, Mike Elliott, said Trout, who indicated Riley taught him “you treat people as good as they’ll let you.”

Trout, now deputy chief, recalled how a former officer could have the victim ready to fight him by the end of a call because of the way he talked to people.

Trout said Elliott used to say, “‘You can always start out nice and go mean, but if you start out mean, it’s hard to go back and be nice. You’ve already set the tone.’”

That advice is something Trout, who remembers his “first day like it was yesterday,” will continue to carry into his retirement on Oct. 1.

A party in honor of Trout’s retirement will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce’s meeting room.

Retirement, Trout said, is “naturally in your mind. You think, I’m going to retire from here, but you don’t think it’s ever going to get here.”

“I’m friends with several people on Facebook; we’re all about the same age,” Trout explained. “The common question of lot of them” ask as they “come close to retirement is, ‘How will I know it’s time?’

“The common thread/answer of everybody is you’ll know. You’ll know when it’s time.”

Prior to having neck surgery July 10, Trout took a week’s vacation to get things done around the house.

“During that week, I had no intentions (of retiring),” Trout said. “I was going to stay until I was probably 60 or better.”

Trout said he laid his phone down, walked away from it that week and “got to enjoy life a little bit.”

While attending a party for Elks Lodge members, “one of my close friends that I worked with here said, ‘You’re not going to go back to work are you? You’re done,’” Trout recalled. “I said, ‘I’m going to go back, but you’re right, I’m done.’”

Trout said nothing bad happened to influence his decision.

“I have loved this job,” he said.

Being a police officer was one of two careers Trout considered pursuing.

“My whole life, I wanted to be a pharmacist or a police officer,” said Trout. “I wouldn’t say I didn’t have the opportunity to go to college.

“It just really wasn’t something I wanted to do, so I wasn’t prepared to make the sacrifices it took to become a pharmacist.”

As a child, Trout said, he always respected the law enforcement profession and thought it was an honorable one.

“It was just something I wanted to be a part of,” said Trout.

In January 1988, Trout said, he had a chance to join the reserves and later was hired full time in February 1989.

“I can remember telling Melvin Riley … ‘I can’t believe they pay me to do this,’” Trout said.

As he looks back on his career, Trout said, the people he has worked with have been the best part of the job.

“Probably one of the most enjoyable things for me is Chief (Danny) Whiteley,” Trout said. “I’ve learned so much from him about the way to do business, the way to treat people.

“I’ve said it over and over, when you can say it’s funner at work when your boss is there than when he’s gone, that’s saying something.”

Trout recalled something former Daily American Publisher Don Schrieber said in describing Whiteley.

“There are ordinary men, and there are extraordinary men, and you, my friend (Whiteley), are extraordinary,” Trout said. “I have no better way to explain him than that.

“It’s truly been a pleasure getting to work directly under him.”

Trout has served as deputy chief since 2016 and previously worked on the administrative side as patrol commander since 2008.

“I feel that I’ve been so blessed and so lucky, and I never dreamed that I would make it to the position I made it to,” Trout said. “ … I’ve enjoyed this. I’ve enjoyed it immensely.”

Coming up through the ranks, “the actual patrol function was probably the most fun I ever had as a police officer,” Trout said.

While it’s kind of cliche to say, Trout said, the job really is about helping people.

“Honest to God, you start to look back at your career, you can remember instances where you helped people,” Trout said.

“There were times while participating with the annual Shop with a Hero program when “you hear a dad in the back say ‘I want so and so to take us shopping,’ and you go back there and they remember you because you’ve apparently touched them at some point,” he said.

Although Trout hasn’t physically arrested anyone in some time, he recalls that “even if I had to fight with them, when we were done, we were done.

“We came back to the station and had a cup of coffee while I booked them.”

Over the years, Trout said, the hardest part of the job was the scheduling, as well as some of the things he saw.

“I can remember one time a baby dying,” Trout said. “I just knew we would save that baby’s life, and we didn’t.”

“Over time you see so much, you kind of put it to the back of your mind.”

Working in law enforcement here in Poplar Bluff and Southeast Missouri, Trout said, was a blessing.

“You see what’s going on all over the United States, and we are so fortunate that we don’t have that here,” he said. “It’s not uncommon to be in a restaurant and your meal be picked up by someone and you don’t have a clue who done it.

“It’s very humbling.”

Trout also is grateful.

“I think I can safely say I’ve had a safe career,” Trout said. “ … I’m relatively sure God’s watched over me, and I’m very thankful for that.”

The hardest part about retiring, Trout said, is leaving his coworkers.

“It’s not just people you work with; they have become family,” Trout said. “ … We spend time together outside of work. … For the most part, you know who their kids are. You know who their wives are.”

Trout said his last weeks at the department also have been hard.

“By design, I had to be replaced,” Trout said. “I understand it has to happen this way, but to watch someone promoted to take your place and then you have to set back and let it happen. Not only let it happen, but let them do their job.

“I’ve always liked to be in the center of everything going on, and it’s very difficult.”

Trout said he supports the new deputy chief, Mike McClain, 110%.

“I think he will be outstanding for the job,” Trout said.

As for the future, Trout said, he is looking forward to his doctor releasing him so he can get back on the lawn mower and side-by-side.

Trout said his immediate future is “staying home and taking care of the things that need to be taken care of. … There’s stuff I’ve neglected around the house.”

Although he and his wife don’t have young children, “I don’t see a thing wrong with me being Mr. Mom and helping out around the house while Sandy has to work.”

Trout said he is grateful the city has the benefits in place to “let me do this,” but wishes his wife, Sandy, could “go along when I go.”