By Sam Elliott
The end of September will also mark the end of a 40-year career for Fishers’ first full-time policeman and the city’s only police chief in its history.
Fishers Police Chief George Kehl will take off his badge for the last time Sept. 29 after a 40-year run that saw him serve the city as chief for 38 of those years.
A life-long Fishers resident, the then-town had approximately 1,500 residents when Kehl was hired as its first full-time employee.
“I just always had an interest in law enforcement,” Kehl said of what drew him to the profession. “We were so small and had a part-time town marshal at the time and I rode with him a lot. I knew a couple of the deputies that were farmers around here and worked for the sheriff’s department, so I would ride with them, and it just drew my interest. I had an opportunity to become a reserve deputy sheriff for Hamilton County, so I took that opportunity and did that for about a year. I came to Fishers and worked part-time for three and a half years and then became full time in ’78.”
Since then, the Fishers Police Dept. has grown to 107 sworn officers. A big part of its growth began in the 1990s when Fishers’ population began to rise.
“We were on a huge hiring spree. I would never want to do that again where you’re hiring 10 to 15 new officers a year,” Kehl said. “You can’t do it today. We were fortunate back then where there was a lot of reserve officers and a lot of them came on full time and there were just a lot of great candidates to pick from back in the late ’80s and ’90s. It’s a tougher hiring process now.”
As the city and its police department continued to grow, Fishers has earned countless distinctions the past few decades on various publications’ “Safest Places to Live” lists — a point of pride for its police chief.
“That’s our responsibility, to make it the safest city,” Kehl said. “We’re obligated to do that and everybody knows that. They take a lot of pride in making sure that’s our mission and that it’s successfully fulfilled.
“What I’m most proud of are the programs our officers have established, the relationships they’ve built with the schools, the school resource program, the DARE program, the teen academy, the citizen’s academy — those things you can’t put a value on how important they are,” he added. “To have officers step up and come up with these ideas and implement them and the different specialty teams we have that they’ve taken off and run with and made huge successes, I’m most proud of that.”
What’s Next?
After a 40-year career, Fishers Police Chief George Kehl has earned the right to kick back and relax in retirement — not that he will.
“I know I want some time,” he said. “I’ll take some time off to relax, but maybe not kick my feet up. I’ve got projects lined up for a couple months.”
And that attitude came as no surprise to the man who will soon replace him as police chief.
“Anybody that knows George knows he doesn’t sit around,” FPD Assistant Chief Mitch Thompson said. “He’s always on the move or got something going.”
Kehl nearly got an early start to his post-policing life in the May election, during which he ran for one of three at-large spots on the Hamilton County Council. In a tight race, Kehl finished just outside of a spot on the county council in fourth with 19.91 percent of the vote (28,764 votes), with the third and final council spot secured with 20.92 percent (30,221 votes).
Although he denied to offer specifics, Kehl hinted the Hamilton County Council campaign would likely not be his final foray into politics. After all, he has some time on his hands now.
“I will probably be back in the political arena. I don’t know exactly at what level at this point. We’re talking about some things. I’m not going away and I’ll be back in the political arena,” Kehl said. “I’m not sharing anything because I haven’t made a decision yet.”
Next Man Up
Mitch Thompson has been with the Fishers Police Dept. since 1991, joining an administrative role as patrol commander in 1999 and serving as assistant chief since 2003. He’s spent the past year learning the ropes of his new job as chief, which he’ll officially begin after George Kehl’s last day Sept. 29.
“We call it a last-year transition period, which there wasn’t too much to that. Mitch has been ready to go from day one,” Kehl said. “Basically he’s running the day-to-day and we’re sending him to everything now and it’s been that way for a couple months. It’s all running very smoothly.
“Not many departments can say that their command staff has brought up an assistant chief to become the chief,” he added. “A lot of mayors all over the country do these nationwide searches and hire headhunters, and that’s disruptive for an agency when there’s no continuity. We’re very fortunate to have that stabilization here.”
There also aren’t many assistant chiefs who can say they’re replacing a local legend in the law enforcement community with four decades of experience.
“You’re looking at a guy who’s the longest-serving chief in the state of Indiana, if not in the Midwest or whole country — 38 years as chief of police is unheard of,” Thompson said. “Those are big shoes for me to walk into and try to fill. What’s important is that I honor the legacy that Chief Kehl has established, but then also continue to establish that next generation of where we go with the Fishers Police Dept.”
