Kerry Crews has been the police chief at the Commerce City Police Department for the past six years and has been working in law enforcement for over 20 years, nearly half his life.
“I was born to do this,” Crews said. “I had always said, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a police officer’.”
Toward the end of high school Crews worked briefly as a mechanic, and immediately after graduating he worked with an EMS technician for six months.
“I did that before I was actually certified,” Crews said. “I performed CPR before I actually knew what CPR was.”
Crews was too young to drive the EMS vehicle for insurance reasons, so he would sit in the back with the patients as the certified technician drove and verbally advised him of what to do through the small window between the cab and rear compartment.
Crews did eventually become a certified EMS technician and kept that certification until 1996.
Six months later a position opened at the Delta Country Sheriff’s office, and he took that job instead.
He worked as a jailer and dispatcher at that office for several years before transferring to the Commerce Police Department to better his opportunities.
“I was looking for more money and benefits,” Crews said. “There is a pretty big difference between working at the county level and working at the city level. At county you have a lot of cow breakouts and burglaries, but on the city level there’s more domestic disturbance, a lot of drinking and assaults.”
From there Crews worked his way up.
“I’ve worked in just about every area in this police department,” Crews said.
At just under 40, he is the youngest police chief Commerce has seen in a long time. In his leisure time, Crews enjoys hunting and fishing.
“I wouldn’t really call it golf, but I like to get out there and smack that little ball around a bit too,” Crews said.
He and his family go on vacation quite a bit, from simple trips to Dallas all the way to traveling to the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a Hawaiian getaway.
“We’ve been all over, gone to the coast too,” he said.
Crews has four children ranging from three years old to 16 years old, and a wife.
“She teaches in Sulphur Springs, a class of between 15 and 17 three-to-four-year-olds,” Crews said. “She has her bachelor’s degree and is currently working on getting her master’s in early childhood education. She did attend classes here at Texas A&M University-Commerce.”
The staff and police officers also enjoy working with Chief Crews.
Crystal Newton, a dispatcher for the Commerce Police Department, said Crews is very easy to work with and easy to approach: he keeps an open door policy for the employees in the station there.
“I’m a single mom of two,” Newton said. “If I ever have any problems with my children, he lets me take care of them. I think he’s a great chief and a great leader. He’s not afraid to help out his patrol either.”
Neil Johnson, a nighttime patrol officer with CPD for four years, said he respects Crews quite a lot.
“Chief Crews is never afraid to get out here with us,” Johnson said.
Crews said he really loves being able to make a difference in the community.
“A lot of cops have the badge and the gun and sometimes that’s all it boils down to, but really there is a lot more to it, and that’s what I love about this job,” Crews said.