February 22, 2007

By Virgil Hervey

School board member Aida Merhemic and Andrew Ferguson take a small step towards dance fluency.

Eight years ago, as a teenage member of the Yellow Springs Judo Club from nearby New Carlisle, Patrick Roegner never imagined that he would someday become a Yellow Springs police officer. Except for the occasional hike with his parents in the Glen, the judo club was his only connection with the village, he said in a recent interview.

But recently, soon after Roegner completed the state boards to be certified as a police officer, one of his friends at the judo club told him that a position had opened up in the Yellow Springs Police Department. Roegner applied and was hired, right there in the Bryan Community Center, the very same building where the judo club meets.

“Everything just seemed to fall into place,” Roegner said.

He started in the beginning of January and has worked with Sergeant Tom Jones and Officers Gerry Greene and Tim Knoth on the 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift.

Roegner enlisted in the Air Force right after graduation from Tecumseh High School and became a member of the security forces, that branch’s version of the military police. He served for three years at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Mont., and another three years at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Ga., before being discharged.

He joined the military, Roegner said, because he saw it as a way to pay for a college education. Back in civilian life, he returned to New Carlisle and used some of his G.I. Bill money to pay tuition for Ohio peace officer training at Clark State Community College.

Over the years, whenever he returned to Ohio, he would work out with the judo club. Back for good, he started participating again on a regular basis, even while undergoing training as a police officer.

Roegner and his wife of six years plan to move closer to the village, “somewhere in Greene County, maybe Fairborn,” he said. Asked about his plans for the future, he said he would like to use the rest of his G.I. Bill funds to pursue a degree in criminal justice and continue in the YSPD until retirement.

Roegner’s hiring brings the number of police officers to 12, four part-time and eight full-time. According to Police Chief John Grote, that number still leaves the department one below strength.

“We are looking at one more full-time police officer prospect,” Grote said recently. If that prospect works out, he will be sent to Ohio peace officer training and will start on the force in August.

In Roegner’s case the hiring process was expedited because the department needed a full-time officer on an emergency basis, Grote said. He is currently under-going eight weeks of field training, during which he will not take a turn on duty without another officer. After that he will be ready to go on patrol by himself.

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com