Warner Robins Police Chief Brett Evans-Three decades of service and counting

Earlier this month the city of Warner Robins celebrated and recognized employees for their years of service to the city. One of them being Warner Robins Police Chief Brett Evans. Evans was presented his 30 years service pin and this December will also mark being the police chief for 14 years.

Evans comes from a military family where the first 15 years of his life, he and his family moved around. In 1980 is when they arrived in Warner Robins.

“My dad was in the military,” said Evans. “I was born in Utah. We lived in Oklahoma, Texas, Massachusetts, California and North Dakota. What’s crazy was we lived five years in North Dakota and California. The rest of the states were all within a five year spin.”

When Evans and his family came to Warner Robins he was starting high school. He graduated from Northside High School in 1983. From there he went on to college at Middle Georgia State for a year and then graduated from Georgia College in 1987. Evans was first interested in science, but later switched to criminal justice.

“No one in my family was in law enforcement, but I just started becoming more interested in the topic,” said Evans. “I was also looking at the different aspects of what I wanted my career to be and where I would want to be. My mindset was I didn’t want to move, and didn’t want to be told where I had to live, I chose to be here. At that point I had been in Warner Robins for seven years so I considered it home.”

Evans graduated from Georgia College in June 1987, but actually started working at Warner Robins Police Department in May of 1987. He said he started out as an intern and then was hired on as a police officer. Evans started out on patrol from 1987 to 1989, moved to the drug unit in 1989 to 1993. He went back on patrol in 1993 and moved up to the rank of sergeant in 1995, lieutenant in 1997 where he was then promoted to detective in the CID (criminal investigations division). In 1998 he became captain along with being the supervisor of the CID and crime lab. December of 2003 he was then appointed as chief.

“I did not imagine myself becoming chief and when it happened it was kind of a surprise because I was younger,” said Evans. “I was 39 when I made chief. It was something that presented itself a lot earlier than I would ever expected it to. But the mayor at the time Donald Walker asked for applications and resumes. He conducted interviews and actually unbeknownst us a lot of times he would ask questions and we didn’t realize we were being interviewed. But I am blessed, very grateful and here I am almost 14 years later and still going.”

Evans said what he enjoys most about being in law enforcement is that it is something different everyday whether you work on patrol or administration. He said one of the highlights of his career was when he was on patrol and the swat team.

“When I first started and before you go out on the road on your own, you have to ride with a field training officer,” said Evans. “After I would complete my required eight hours for the day I’d go ride some more with another training officer because I wanted to learn more, and really enjoyed it. I was the guy that everyone got tired of me being there (he said laughing). And what’s amazing from my time on the road to becoming chief is that our city has really grown. A lot of people don’t realize the city as a whole from when I started until now has almost doubled in size. And this department has grown. You know that’s one of the things we pride ourselves on is the ability to keep the crime rate steady even though we have faced a lot of population growth and square millage growth.”

Evans position now as chief is head of the department and making sure the day-to-day operations flow smoothly. He said most of what he handles on a daily basis is personnel matters, training requests, purchasing, budget lines and equipment.

“There’s also a lot of paper work,” said Evans. “I’m not a rubber stamp guy, I read and sign everything that needs to go through. The stress in the beginning of being chief was overwhelming, but until you understand what drives that stress then you take and breath and resolve it. The one piece of advice I give to others who are moving into a position like this or gets elected is don’t let the calendar drive you, you drive the calendar. If you try to do everything everybody wants you to do you will get stressed out. Just take things one at a time and do what you can.”

Over his career, Evans has seen a lot of good, but also a lot of the bad. He said majority of the community doesn’t realize what an officer goes through on a daily basis. “People want us in law enforcement to be here to handle the things that they don’t want to,” said Evans. “The vast majority of what we do doesn’t have anything to do with enforcing the law. We’re handling problems, domestics, accidents, deaths, suicides, and robberies everyday. It has nothing to do with enforcing the law, but we are going to be one of the first ones there.”

“With that is a constant stressor for officers,” said Evans. “The upside is during the day usually there is something positive that comes along. People don’t understand the real emotional rollercoaster an officer deals with everyday. When you’re there in a really bad scene comforting someone with a loss, an hour later your consoling a five year old on why it’s important they obey their parents or you’re the first on an accident scene and you begin performing CPR to revive a person until EMS arrives; it’s tremendous.”

Evans said he tries to get the officers of Warner Robins Police to treat others the way they want to be treated. But with also the citizens understanding that when an officer arrives on scene they could be stressed from the previous call.

“Remembering everyone’s situation is not isolated is key,” said Evans. “You have to keep that in mind of you don’t know what either the officer or citizen has faced.”

How Evans has been able to manage separating and relief of that stress over the years is he said his family keeps him grounded.

“I have a great family,” said Evans. “My wife Tammy is my sounding board and together we have seven kids. Our oldest is 17 and youngest is five, three boys and four girls. I try my hardest to keep work separated from home. We make it a point at dinnertime there are no phone calls or texts. If it rings it rings, family is most important. It’s funny my kids understand I’m now in administrative job and that I don’t get to be out on the road a lot like I use to. My boys are starting to become interested in my days of the swat team. I truly enjoy what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

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