St. John began his law enforcement career in 1974 with the city of Fairfield and retired from there after more than 25 years of service. But he didn’t stay in retirement very long.
“When I first retired from Fairfield, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” St. John said. “I was 48 years old … I knew that I wasn’t retiring to go sit in a rocking chair somewhere, so I knew I was going to be doing something.”
While he’s still not ready for a rocking chair just yet, St. John said he’s done with full-time police work this time. St. John said he’s been planning his second retirement for about a year and intends to “do some part-time things here and there” once he’s left the township.
“Things I want to do. Things with less hours and less responsibilities,” St. John said, noting some of those “things” may be connected with law enforcement, but in a different venue.
St. John said he first caught the law enforcement bug while working at Elder-Beerman.
“When I was 19 or 2o years old, I developed a friendship with some police officers when I was working at the Elder-Beerman store in Hamilton, who worked off duty. Some of the stories they told me about police work and so forth were intriguing and interesting to me. At some point, it dawned on me this might be something I might like to do,” he said.
The city of Fairfield was the first department that offered him a position, which he began in 1974. He stayed with them for 25½ years, then became the police chief in Carlisle in Warren County in August 1999. He stayed until being asked about the Fairfield Twp. job by then-Chief Mike Kirsch.
His first day with the township was May 1, 2000. At that time, the explosion of commercial development had not taken place yet. But within that decade, one shopping center or retail store after another came along: Bridgewater Falls, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Menards and many others.
“The workload here has increased exponentially in the 13 years I’ve been here … none of this development was here when I came here. And the population was smaller too. The 2000 census reflected that the township had approximately 16,000. Now we’re at approximately 22,000 residents.”
And the police department grew along with the township. When St. John started, there were nine full-time officers, five part-time officers and one full-time clerk. Now there are 17 full-time officers, six part-time officers, one full-time clerk, one part-time clerk and one part-time crime prevention community relations specialist.
St. John said he was grateful to the trustees and the residents for the opportunity to serve.
Rahall said he was grateful to work with the chief.
“It was a real pleasure working with Chief St. John for 10 years,” Rahall said. “He was a true asset to the community — professional, honest, unquestionable integrity. He was mutually respected countywide and statewide as a consummate professional. I couldn’t have asked more from a (police) chief, and he will be deeply missed by myself and the entire community.”
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