Dreams do come true; ask Homer police officer

HOMER — While it’s often not easy for police departments around the country to attract prospective officers from their own communities, the Homer Police Department can now boast three homegrown officers with the recent hiring of Mike Swearingen.

According to Police Chief Mark Robl, not only did the hiring process go smoothly and didn’t cost the department transportation and training fees, but Robl also got an officer with good community knowledge.

“This is where I want to raise my kids,” Swearingen said. “And I have always wanted to be a police officer in Homer.”

Swearingen’s parents, Walt and Ruth, moved to Homer when Mike was about 7 years old. He graduated from Homer High School in 1991.

“I always had it in my mind that I would be a police officer,” he said. “When I was 15, I started volunteering with the fire department and started EMT training.”

He asked at the police department about getting a job as a police officer but was advised to go seek military or police academy training first. He joined the army and went to training at Fort Benning, Ga.

Two years later, he returned to Alaska and went to the Alaska State Trooper Academy in Sitka. His first post was Soldotna.

“We had to move there, and it hurt worse than we thought it would to leave Homer,” Swearingen said.

So, when he heard about the Homer Police Department opening, he jumped at the chance. Two weeks separated the time he applied from the time he was placed on the job.

The department now has a full staff of 12 officers, including two others raised in Homer; Stacy Luck and Dave Shealy.

“The benefit is that you get somebody with ties to the community. They know what issues are important, what is less important, and they know the area geographically so they can find calls easily and quickly,” Robl said. “Having a connection to people in the community is a great thing.”

As part of his role in community policing, Swearingen said he wants to mentor young people. He figures he had a lot of great mentors while he was following the volunteer fire department on emergency calls, and he wants to give that back.

“I like to be involved with kids in schools and be a mentor for what we call preventive maintenance,” he said.