UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
---
Friday, November 19, 1993
7
To protect and serve: Mark Warre
Reflecting on his career, Warren recalled being in a few dangerous situations, but he never thought of them that way at the time.
Lawrence police Sgt. Mark Warren calls a dispatcher to confirm information about a helicopter landing at Haskell Stadium for a Lawrence High School football game. As shift supervisor, Warren patrols the entire city and assists other officers when necessary.
After two years of working in an office, Sgt. Mark Warren returns to the streets he loves.
It's 5:30 in the evening, and a Laurence police officer is leaving the station for his dinner break. He spots a man in the parking lot, apparently cutting tires on patrol cars. The officer radios for help, and a brief chase ensues. The suspect is caught and arrested a few blocks from the station.
Sgt. Mark Warren listens to the chase on the scanner in his car. As shift supervisor, he lets the officers under his command handle the situation. Later, he drives by the station to assess the damage: 14 police and sheriff's department vehicles and two private cars each lean on at least two flat tires. Warren drives by his red Mercur Tracer, which was unarmed
"Darn," Warren says. "I need a new set of ties."
Warren likes patrolling Lawrence's streets.
Warren has worked to provide that security since July 1979, when he joined the Lawrence police. With the exception of two years in the department's technical services division and a brief stint in investigations, he has spent his entire career as a patrol officer.
"To me, patrolling the streets is the main job of law enforcement," he said. "It's the greatest sense of security you can provide the public."
Warren said his philosophical reasons for joining the police force were not unique.
“Initially, we all enter law enforcement with a strong desire to help our fellow man,” he said. “As I have gone through my career, I have also gained a sense of worth to the community. And that's what it all goes back to, having a job that impacts the community.”
But his work in Lawrence was not his first experience with law enforcement. Two of his uncles were in law enforcement. Warren said they had some bearing on his career because he saw law enforcement in a positive light.
Economics also played a role in Warren's decision. He studied agricultural business for three semesters at Colby Community College. When he saw the agriculture economy falling, Warren decided to look for greener fields.
"I could tell he had a lot of bearing and presence," Harmon said. "He had been in a lot of the situations before in the Army, which prepared him to be a good patrol officer. And I know he enjoys the street work more than being inside."
Warren did come back. He joined the Lawrence police and began 18 weeks of training in the police academy. Lt. Kevin Harmon, a Lawrence police detective, was one of Warren's classmates in the academy.
The first officers to arrive have separated the four instigators from the crowd. Warren's job is to keep the environment safe for the officers gathering information. He directs the crowd around the corner and chats with them while the other officers interview the subjects.
From 1976 to 1979, Warren served as a military police officer in what was West Germany. Except for that experience and his time in Colby, Warren has spent his entire life in Douglas County.
"I joined the Army for military police experience," he said. "I just wanted to see if I liked it, and I did."
The call: A fight has broken out at The Sandbar. Warren is the fourth officer at the bar on East Eight h Street, but they are still outnumbered.
The most significant change Warren has noticed in his 14 years with the department has
"When I was finished in the Army, I really wanted to come back," he said.
The officers tell the troublemakers to leave and not return to the bar for the night. The rest of the crowd goes quietly back into the bar. With the situation firmly in hand, Warren returns to the streets.
been in the technological aspects of the iob.
"When I started, we had one computer terminal in the communications center," he said. "It gave access to NCIC, and only specially trained personnel were allowed to operate it.
"Now, every officer is able to use computers. It has definitely made our job more effective. We couldn't function without them."
NCIC is the National Crime Information Computer, a national data base that records and tracks stolen or missing property and people.
Warren has watched Lawrence grow during his career. As the town has grown, his job has become more demanding.
"Six to eight calls was a busy night when I started," Warren said. "Now, with twice as many officers we still get 10 to 20 calls a night."
Lawrence has not necessarily become more violent as it has grown, but violence has become more frequent, Warren said. He attributed the violence to Lawrence being situated between two large metropolitan areas, Kansas City and Topeka, connected by Interstate 70, which runs north of Lawrence.
Violent offenders also are becoming younger, Warren said.
"If they start young, they are capable of more violence as they get older," he said.
He fills out time cards to ensure that his officers get paid properly. He reviews reports and tickets written by his officers. He makes out assignment sheets and approves applications for vacation and overtime.
Reflecting on his career, Warren recalled being in a few dangerous situations, but he never thought of them that way at the time.
In one of those situations, he and other officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance. When they arrived, they heard a man and a woman shouting. The officers learned from neighbors that the man was mentally disturbed and thought he was being possessed.
Patrolling the streets is not the only thing Warren has done. From August 1991 to September of this year, Warren served as the department's technical services sergeant. He was in charge of the department's communications center, records and evidence.
He also purchased equipment for the department a duty that became a lesson in city government.
"I had to find out how the department fits into the city government," Warren said. "When I first went inside, we were writing the specifications for the enhanced 911 system, and it was like they were speaking a foreign language with all their acronyms. It was hard in that it took a lot of self-education."
The officers then heard the woman shout "Don't shoot!" The man fired a high-caliber handgun out the back door of the house.
Another of Warren's duties in technical services was a daily briefing with the media. That was another duty that took some getting used to, Warren said.
"This shift turns in a lot of overtime," he says. "If you don't stay up with this stuff, it'll just bury you."
"The only thing that saved us was that we went through the front door instead of the back." Warren said. "But you can't rationalize or second guess in a situation like that. You just feel confident in yourself and the other officers around you."
When the officers stormed through the front door, the man was glad they were there to save him. The argument was resolved without any injuries.
It's 9:30 p.m. Warren heads to the station for one of the less glamorous but important aspects of his job as shift supervisor: paperwork.
Story and photos by Scott J. Anderson
"As a patrol officer, I didn't deal with the press," he said. "I learned that it was OK not to tell everything you knew but to tell the truth with what you did say. You need to be straight-forward and tell them you can't make statements that may hamper an investigation. And you need to tell them that as soon as you can say something it will be told to everyone fairly."
"I also learned that the police need the media if something needs to be told to ease the public's fear."
Once the shift is done, Warren puts the work behind him.
"Sometimes you just have to, but it takes years of learned behavior," he said. "You learn that there are some things you can't control. You do what you can, but you don't let it consume you."
But scheduling has been a problem for the Warrens ever since Mark decide to ask Linda to marry him.
"It's a special problem for parents when just one parent does shift work," Linda Warren said. "With both of us doing it, it's twice as hard."
At home, Warren enjoys spending time with his wife, Linda, and their two children: Todd, 12, and Molly, 7. Linda Warren works part time as a nursing supervisor at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Both parents work nights, so they arrange their schedules so they are not working at the same time.
.
"I am a very busy person, and so is he," she said. "He had it all set up to propose one night, and I couldn't do it because I had to work. The next night he tried again, and he called out on an emergency. The third time he asked me to
out I said I was too tired. He said 'Come on,
let's go for some coffee and pie.' I was clueless
as to why it was so important to him that we go
out that night."
That night was seven months after a blind date Linda Warren did not want to go on.
"I didn't want to go out with a police officer," she said. "But we just hit it off. Some other friends were going out and wanted us to go with them. I think it was a lot easier going out that way because we didn't have to play that game of trying to impress each other."
Linda Warren said that in the eight and a half years they had known each other, she had overcome her initial hesitation about being involved with a police officer.
"He's a smart policeman with a good head on his shoulders," she said. "I know that he is always as safe as he can be."
It's 1:15 in the morning, less than an hour before the shift ends. Officers are called to Johnny's Tavern. A man has been hit over the head with a beer bottle outside the bar on North Second Street.
Warren arrives shortly after the ambulance. Other officers are already on the scene interviewing witnesses. Warren crouches beside the victim lying face-up on the pavement with a pool of blood collecting behind his head.
The paramedics brace the victim's head and neck and tape him to a long spine board. Warren helps lift the victim onto a stretcher. The paramedics load the man into the ambulance and race from the scene.
Warren heads back to the station. It's time to go home.
Sgt. Mark Warren operates a radar gun for the baseball throw at the Deerfield Elementary School carnival. Warren said such activity was a primary example of the police department's community involvement.
4