By Amelia A. Pridemore
One quiet night, Tim Deems, then with only a few years under his law enforcement belt, was doing radar patrol on Eisenhower Drive. Practically no cars were on the road.
That seemingly quiet night ended quickly, according to Deems.
“Suddenly, this car comes toward me, through the straight stretch, toward where Beckley Honda is now,” he said. “It was making pretty good speed. It was the only car on the road. I pulled it over as it turned onto Rural Acres Drive, and it had three people in it.
“I asked the driver for his license and registration. I noticed the people were acting nervously. I went back to my patrol car to run the driver’s license and write a citation for speeding.
“That’s when I heard, on the radio, there had been a robbery at a Subway. The description of the suspects fit the descriptions of the people I had pulled over. All three of them were arrested. I found the money underneath the driver’s seat of the car.”
Deems said he learned a valuable lesson — never underestimate a situation.
“In my mind, the driver was speeding, but I then learned these people had robbed a Subway,” he said. “You have to stick with your training — always use caution.
“Some have the tendency to become lax with the job. They must remember — you don’t know how dangerous a person can be.”
After 17 years of what he says has been valuable training — both informal and formal — Deems, age 39, has the top position at the Beckley Police Department, its first new chief in more than 18 years.
Deems, previously a lieutenant supervising the department’s Narcotics Enforcement Division, replaced Billy Cole, who retired June 22. Deems was sworn in as chief June 27.
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At age 16, Deems, a 1986 Woodrow Wilson High School graduate, began work at the old Raleigh Mall Kroger. He said he spent six years working as both a cashier and stocker.
“I was looking for something to get into,” he said. “I wouldn’t be where I wanted, career-wise, if I stayed at Kroger. I wanted the opportunity to go somewhere else.”
A number of city officers — particularly Tim Berry, J.D. Meadows and Bob Tipton — would come into the store to check on the Kroger employees at night, Deems said. He would talk to them and became curious about the work. At the time, both the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department and Beckley P.D. were hiring, and Deems was encouraged to apply for both positions.
“Really, I had nothing against the sheriff’s department, but I wanted to come to Beckley,” he said. “The sheriff’s department, though, had the first opening.”
He accepted a sheriff’s deputy position and held it for a year. Then, Beckley P.D. had an opening — and Cole, the man whose position Deems would eventually take, offered him a job. Deems began work there in 1991.
“I came into it looking for a career, and I plan to stay,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere else. I don’t know — I guess I’m happy here.”
As a rookie officer, Deems not only learned to be on guard, he also learned several valuable lessons from veterans who have now retired. From all these veterans, he tried to learn and take away something.
The most valuable lesson he believed he learned was fairness — to everyone an officer encounters.
“I always tried to treat people fairly, both when I started and later on,” he said. “When I supervised people, I wanted to treat everyone who worked for me fairly.”
He later applied to attend the FBI Academy in 1995, but he was not able to go until January 2002 because of the waiting list. The FBI Academy is a 10-week program sponsored by both the FBI and Department of Justice, which trains police administrators and supervisors. Only two officers from West Virginia are chosen any time the training is offered, and one spot is automatically given to the State Police. The other spot is then opened to all other municipal and county agencies.
“It was quite a wait,” he said. “The training given is provided by FBI staff. You couldn’t beat the experience and instruction from the staff at the FBI Academy.”
Deems also later received a Board of Regents bachelor’s degree from Bluefield State College. His career would eventually have him become a precinct commander in East Beckley, then a road patrol supervisor. He was named supervisor of the Narcotics Enforcement Division in October 2006.
“I’m excited to be given this opportunity to bring the department into a new, positive direction,” he said. “Not that Cole didn’t do a good job. In his 18 years, he brought it a long way from when he took over. I look forward to continuing that.”
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Deems promises Beckley’s citizens and the officers who now work under his command two things — fairness and visibility.
“To sum it up in one word — fair,” he said of his leadership style. “I’ll be fair when enforcing the laws and dealing with the public and employees as well. I want to be fair and treat people the way they would like to be treated — and I would expect that from the officers as well.
“To the officers, civilian employees and the public — this is their department. I can never take credit for all the good things that happen here. It is them that make it what it is.”
Most days, Deems will wear his uniform to work and be out in the community. He plans to attend as many community functions and meetings as he can — and still be a working police officer.
“The guys may see me out during the evening or at night,” he said. “I will stop a car if I see a violation. I am still a police officer. If a crime is committed in my presence, I will do my job.
“I want to become more involved with the community and provide services needed — ones people depend on.”
The eve of July 4, Deems was in uniform and working with a group of his officers at a DUI checkpoint.
Describing himself as a “technology and computer buff,” Deems said he would like to have the police department more up-to-date when it comes to technology.
He is particularly pleased that the city’s and Raleigh County’s agreement with Louisiana-based PTS Solutions has ended. That six-year-project, designed to would connect officers in patrol cars to records via laptop computers, was plagued with technical problems, and the PTS contract eventually ended in legal mediation. City information technology officials plan to purchase new police data software now.
“Now that PTS is behind us, we can begin to move forward and get going in that area,” he said. “I hope that we can find some more user-friendly data software.”
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As chief, Deems is now the person most responsible for handling the city’s crime concerns — one of the top being the illegal drug trade.
“The illegal drug trade affects all communities, and Beckley is no different from that,” he said. “Even with our (relatively small) size, we have a large amount of traffic and people coming into the city. Our drug problem is no greater or less than any other city of that type.
“We are the hub of southern West Virginia — with hospitals, restaurants and retail establishments. Our population is 17,000 to 18,000 people, but many more visit the city on a daily basis.”
The major problem substances in Beckley are cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana, Deems said. Locally, he said the Narcotics Enforcement Division will continue to enforce the law, noting the city’s narcotics investigators work hand-in-hand with the State Police.
“Nationally, I believe we need to secure our borders,” he said. “Cocaine and crack cocaine are not grown in the United States. Every bit of it is smuggled into the United States. Securing our borders would help reduce the amount of drugs smuggled into the country.”
Deems plans to have a full-time Narcotics Enforcement Division, and its investigators, he believes, do an excellent job — likely making more arrests than most task forces in the state. While he has named veteran investigator Detective Lt. Jeff Shumate as the division’s supervisor to take his own former position, he said he had not yet made any decisions on possibly increasing the narcotics division’s size.
Deems said Beckley police will continue to enforce traffic laws and work to reduce the number of accidents. Some problems, he said, will require working with both the city administration and the state Division of Highways if they are to be corrected. But as people flock to new retail and dining establishments, Deems said, law enforcement’s hands are relatively tied.
“With the volume of traffic, we have little control,” he said. “I don’t see the amount reducing any time soon as people travel to Beckley.”
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One of Deems’ top departmental concerns is doing everything he possibly can to ensure officer safety. Detective Cpl. Chuck Smith, 29, was killed in the line of duty Aug. 29, 2006, during an undercover drug operation.
“It’s a dangerous job, and it’s hard to anticipate everything that will come along. There is always some risk,” he said. “On my end, I will do everything I can to ensure officer safety, whether it be with equipment or training.”
With the retirement of several veteran officers since late 2005, Beckley P.D. is a young department. Deems said half of its officers have six years’ experience or less.
“We will make up for that by providing training,” he said. “Over half are experienced officers here, but we will make up for (the others’) years by providing training and supervision.
“There is a strict hiring process before we even hire an officer. We start training in-house, right away. If we have time before they go to the (West Virginia State Police) academy, they will start training with firearms and ride with an (experienced) officer on the street.”
State Police Academy training lasts 16 weeks, and is the minimum mandatory training the state requires, Deems said. However, officers coming from the academy at Beckley P.D. must also go through a field training officer program for eight weeks after their return.
“If they make it through, they go out on their own — still supervised by their shift commander.”
At full force, the department has 48 officers. Currently, only five officers are black (10 percent of the department), and two are female (4 percent of the department). The department serves a city that has, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, about 25 percent of its citizens belonging to a racial minority and about 51 percent female. Deems said the department’s last female officer hire was in 1996.
Deems said women and minorities are encouraged to apply, and two or three women are on the department’s current candidate list. The department actively recruits at college job fairs before testing. However, he notes the department must hire according to State Code — and the hiring process includes a good written test score, passing a physical agility test, polygraph examination and background check. The department cannot bypass these standards, and it must hire the most qualified applicants.
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Deems and his wife, Nicole, have been together 13 years, and he is the father of three children — Megan, 17; Michael, 14; and Nicholas, 11. He credits his wife’s support of his career for pulling him through some tougher times.
“My wife — I owe a lot to her. It’s difficult to be married to a police officer,” he said. “There’s evening and night shifts and long hours. But she’s always been supportive of me and my career. I know it’s been tough for her a lot of times. She has run the household when I’ve worked long hours. I owe a lot to her for her support and a shoulder to lean on sometimes.”
Looking back at his time as a grocery store clerk and stocker, Deems said he never imagined he would ever be a police officer, much less a police chief. He encouraged all other officers to strive for the same goals.
“That should be the goal of any police officer starting out here,” he said. “I hope everyone here would want to be chief — if they felt like they could do the job, they should work toward that goal.”
— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com
