FCSO captain retires
Capt. Mark Swindle will mark nearly 35 years of service with law enforcement with his retirement March 1.
It was at the tender age of 18 that Capt. Mark Swindle got his first job in law enforcement – although he spent his whole childhood around police officers. March 1, a long legacy of service will reach a new milestone for Swindle as he retires from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
His father was a police officer, and Swindle grew up with constant exposure to the police force. Other officers were often around the house during his youth – Sundays, holidays and really any day of the week. “Mother would always get up and fix them something to eat,” Swindle said. “And when they’d go by – we lived on a farm, and there was a bridge over the train tracks … When the officers would go across the bridge, they would tell me to look outside. I would go to the door or window to look out, and they would turn the blue light on as they went across.”
He added, “When we were kids, and we played cowboys and Indians, I always had to be the marshal.”
One evening, when he was about 18, his father asked him if he wanted to go to work. The Phil Campbell Police Department needed a radio dispatcher.
“I was quite nervous,” Swindle said. “But they showed me how to do it. (Police Chief) Marshall Holder was a nice guy … He always seemed to care about everybody.”
Swindle spent several months of long nights as needed in the dispatch office for the Phil Campbell police department. “It was a totally different time from what it is now,” he said. “You’d get your calls about a drunk driver or something; you might get a call about a fight … (but) everything was pretty much laidback.”
From Phil Campbell he went to work at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department as the radio operator and jailer, during the time of Sheriff U.R. Jarnigan.
It was during this time that he cultivated his philosophy of treating prisoners well. It might have been that compassionate treatment that helped keep the prisoners in Swindle’s corner – illustrated by a situation when one new prisoner tried to attack Swindle.
“I went to put him in the cell, and that’s when he started fighting me,” Swindle said. “He said, ‘I’m not going in there without a cigarette.’” Swindle said he told the man if he’d go in the cell, Swindle would hunt down a cigarette from one of the other officers, but he didn’t believe it. “I remember he said, ‘You little S.O.B. I oughta just kill you.’ We had a scuffle … Some of the inmates reached out through the bars and were trying to get ahold of him.”
Swindle spent about six months there before going to the Red Bay Police Department to work dispatch, jailer and patrol. From there he went to work in Hodges and Vina, during which time he went to the Police Academy, before finally winding up in a permanent position at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, as deputy sheriff.
Nearly 35 years in service with law enforcement means Swindle, 54, has seen everything. Heart wrenching stories are tough to remember and even harder to talk about, but he also cherishes special memories from his career, including serving with the Alabama Fraternal Order of Police Honor Guard. He also met his wife Vicky through the sheriff’s department, whom he married in the late ’80s.
“I was down in Red Bay working a break-in or something, and (my buddy) kept calling me that day wanting me to come up here,” Swindle said. “When I finally got there, she was there, typing up a jail roster for him. That’s the way, I reckon, he kept her there for me to meet her.”
She was an EMT with Helen Keller Hospital. Their first date was an officers’ get-together.
Swindle also treasures his memories of working as a K9 officer, first with Benno and then Bruno – a role he held for 15 years – through which he was able to assist other counties and municipalities without a K9 unit.
The dogs were just like part of the family, Swindle said. When they brought their first daughter, Chelsey, home from the hospital, he set out to introduce Chelsey and Benno. He set Chelsey in the floor.
“Everybody said, ‘Don’t do that. That dog will eat that baby up.’ I said, ‘Y’all be still. Benno is going to have to know her.’”
Benno crawled around to check her out. “Benno just lays his head across her lap. He’s watching her and watching me,” Swindle remembered. “About then, Vickey’s grandma and uncle come through the door, and Benno comes around in between her and them, the mane on his back just standing up. He starts growling, and he won’t let anybody come any closer.”
“As time went on, she could make a sound, and he’d be right there, just looking at her,” Swindle said.
Swindle said he has depended on family for support throughout his career – his wife and daughters, Katelin and Chelsey (and her husband Josh). He also relied heavily on his father for guidance and support until he passed away of a heart attack.
“I was working the night he passed away,” Swindle said. “I had called him … He said, ‘Boy, I’ll see you tomorrow’ … I told him loved him and said I’ll see you tomorrow. That was the last time I got to talk to him.”
Among his recognitions, Swindle is proud of being honored as the Officer of the Year by the Veterans Association in 2012.
“We’re going to hate to see him go. He’s been a good asset for the department,” said FC Sheriff Shannon Oliver. “He is very well-rounded, and he’s got a big heart. The officers he worked with – he seemed to be a father figure to them.”
Swindle said he was honored to have served so many years with wonderful officers. He thanked his fellow officer, chiefs and sheriffs for all their support.
Trying to help people, Swindle said, is what kept him in the police force so long. “You’ve got to care about the people.”
In retirement – or rather, semi-retirement, as Swindle intends to keep working with the FCSO part time – Swindle hopes to spend more time with his grandson, Weston, and also plans to hit the road on his motorcycle. He and his wife love to travel. Beyond that, he doesn’t know what’s next for him.
“You never know what’s over the next hill. You just have to keep going; I don’t plan on sitting down,” Swindle said.
