By PEG KENYON
Special to The Leader
After spending 26 of his 32 years in law enforcement with the Jacksonville Police Department, Capt. Charles Jenkins will turn in his gun and badge next week to sell insurance and spend more time ministering to young people.
“I will be selling insurance – property, casualty and commercial, but at the end of this month, I will be going to school for life and health insurance so I can sell all kinds of it,” Jenkins said. “And my wife (Pearl) and I are going to pursue children’s evangelism.
“In fact, we just completed our first evangelistic crusade at Changepoint Church in Cabot. It went wonderfully, and I just love ministering to children.”
At the end of September, Jenkins will also be attending the Arkansas School of Ministry affiliated with the Assembly of God.
Jenkins is also known for his volunteer work at McArthur Assembly of God in Jacksonville.
These two careers, at first, do not seem to mesh well until hearing Jenkins recall his days as a school-resource officer, his time with the D.A.R.E. program at Pinewood and Dupree elementary schools and how he helped to implement a summer program called Police and Kids Together.
His favorite time in law enforcement was from 1994-1998 when he worked in the school-resource unit.
“Prior to getting into school resource, I was the stereotypical police officer – thick-skinned and cynical,” Jenkins said. “I credit school resource with really opening up my eyes and increasing my effectiveness as a police officer.
“Understand when an officer deals day in and day out with the bad, you get to see 90 percent of the time people at their worst.
Now, that doesn’t mean they’re all bad, but that we just get to see them at their worst. You can fall into the trap of thinking that the whole world is like that,” he said.
While teaching students at Pinewood and Dupree elementary schools, and Jacksonville High School, he also learned some important lessons, which he says gave him a new perspective on life.
“They changed my attitude not only on the world but my job,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins recalled one incident that left a lasting impression on him. “At the end of the first year of PAKT, we had the kids write an essay of what the program had meant to them,” he said.
“A little 12-year-old girl wrote in her essay that she had been thinking of killing herself because she didn’t believe anybody cared about her, but that the three SROs (school resource officers) had shown her that at least three people did care about her, so she decided not to do it,” he said.
“We didn’t know anything about her plans. We were just doing our jobs,” Jenkins added.
Former students stay in touch with Jenkins. “I still talk and see a lot of those high school students and DARE kids as well as their parents on a regular basis,” Jenkins said.
In fact, April Kiser, who now serves as the JPD’s patrol secretary and public-information officer, was among one of Jenkins’ students.
“April was actually one of my high school kids,” Jenkins said with a smile.
Despite his 26 years with the local police department, Jenkins initially became an officer elsewhere.
“I started out in June of 1978 in the little town of Gil-lett and worked there a couple of months before leaving to go back to my hometown, Stuttgart,” Jenkins said. “I was a police officer in Stuttgart for about a year.”
Jenkins left law enforcement briefly in 1979. He re-turned to become a patrol officer in England until August 1983. Between
October 1983 and January 1984, he was a prison guard for the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
“It didn’t take me very long to decide that wasn’t my cup of tea,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins then joined the Jacksonville police force on Feb. 5, 1984. He was hired as a patrol officer and served seven years in that capacity.
In 1991, he was transferred to the Criminal Investigations Division and served as a detective until February 1994.
After his time with the school resource, Jenkins went back to patrolling Jacksonville streets. Jenkins was soon promoted to lieutenant and moved to the patrol division.
In 2002, Jenkins became a captain. His initial assignment as captain was in support services. In 2006, Jenkins requested a transfer to the patrol division and served as its commander for about a year. And once again, he was reassigned to support services.
“As you see, the bulk of my time as captain was spent in support services,” Jenkins said. “Support services is a lot of things, and we have 15 separate missions.”
Those missions include officer training, warrants, records and courtroom security. Other goals focus on community-service programs and building maintenance.
He even served as police chaplain for a while, but he says, “Had it not been for the D.A.R.E. program, it would be very unlikely that I would have gotten into ministry.”
At the police station, several of Jenkins’ fellow police officers expressed sadness about him leaving and joked with him about the good times.
“The biggest thing I think I’ll miss is the camaraderie of the other officers here and the interactions with the local citizens,” Jenkins said. “You can’t do something for about 32 years and not miss it.”
Jacksonville Police Chief Gary Sipes said he was sorry to see Jenkins retire.
“I hate to lose Capt. Jenkins’ knowledge and his abilities he has in PR (public relations) and with the kids in school,” Sipes said.
“He’s going to be hard to replace.”
A retirement luncheon will take place at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 17 at the police station on 1412 Main St. The public is welcome.
Meanwhile, Jenkins is boxing up his personal belongings that have accumulated in his office over nearly three decades.
“I’ll take several suitcases of memories with me, and I know the future is going to be different,” he said as he was cleaning out his office.
