Feb 3, 2020 5 min read

When Tom Ankrom took over Waynesburg’s police department Aug. 13, 2019, the title of police chief might have been new to him, but everything else was familiar.

Ankrom was born and raised in the borough, where he’s spent all his life – except for three months right after graduating high school, when he explored Myrtle Beach with some friends.

The police department is also near and dear to his heart. Ankrom said he knew he wanted to be a cop since a young age and remembers police chief Tim Hawfield visiting his school when he was in elementary school.

“That’s actually kind of funny because he ended up hiring me,” he said. “So the same person I saw as a little kid hired me when I started.”

Ankrom joined the Waynesburg Borough Police Department in 2004, three days after graduating from the academy. Then, he served as a patrolman for 16 years before he was hired as chief six months ago.

All that time on the force made him aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the department. So he knew exactly what to do when he became chief.

“After taking office, I just wanted to increase the morale of the department, try to modernize us a little bit,” Ankrom said.

Increasing morale was very important to him.

“I don’t want to say it was bad but I felt it could be better,” Ankrom said.

To begin with, he increased the work force, adding five part-time officers, including one parking officer to keep the services more consistent. He also promoted two senior officers, Shawn Wood and Billy Nicholes, to sergeants beginning Jan. 1, 2020. The promotion means means most shifts will have a supervisor, someone the patrolmen can look up and ask questions to.

“Overall, I just think by making these changes, by increasing the morale of the department, it also increases the productivity of the department, which seems to be working so far,” Ankrom explained. “The numbers show – officers are more aggressive, they go out and do stuff when they have what they need.”

Moreover, Ankrom started doing department meetings where everyone comes together to discuss how the work is going, something he wished happened when he was a patrolman.

“Honestly, I’m proud of the department,” he said. “They’ve done what I asked of them so far and I felt like it’s going in the right direction.”

The updates to technology include replacing the force’s three older vehicles that needed to be constantly repaired and the older computers that were in those patrol cars. With a new fleet, that is under warranty, Ankrom said, the costs went down and efficiency went up. Moreover, all officers now have tablets that can be used to run softwares and take photographs of scenes.

Standard operating procedures are something Ankrom is updating, as well. He said Hawfield put the policies in place decades ago, and the original documents were saved on floppy disks.

Ankrom called these changes a way of getting the department “up to speed.” He said not everything is where he wants it to be yet but things are getting better.

“I have more contact now with the borough council and I make them aware of what we need and what we’re looking for,” he said. “By being transparent with them, they knew what we needed as a department and they’ve been really good to us. I feel that they now are helping me get [it].”

Ankrom said the relationship with the council has improved because now he explains what his department has, what it needs and why, which keeps the council in the loop.

Communication has been key to the chief’s work. From conducting traffic interventions alongside the sheriff’s office to asking criminal justice students from Waynesburg University for help with borough events, Ankrom said he wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page.

“I feel like my working relationship so far with everybody that I’ve dealt with has been good,” he said. “Some of the problems that I knew that department needed to correct, I don’t think that the council was aware of before.”

In all, Ankrom described his first months as chief as busy, and it’s easy to see why. But he won’t be slowing down any time soon.

His future plans include continued enforcement of ordinances and improved ways to keep residents safe. One idea he has is a drop off location with cameras for those with joint custody arrangements to safely exchange their children.

And then there’s the community building aspect, with an emphasis in policing.

“I grew up around here, I want officers to interact with the kids,” Ankrom said. “Get out of the car, hang out with them, let them get to know you. I don’t want them to be afraid of us, there’s no reason to be afraid of a police officer, we’re here to help.”