Yuma Police Chief remembers his career serving our community

After 33 years serving the Yuma community in uniform, Yuma police chief John Lekan is retiring the badge on Friday.

Chief Lekan has left behind a legacy of fighting for sustainable and competitive pay plans that will ensure that our police department is able to recruit and retain.

He said he also helped water the seed of a great relationship between our men and women in blue and those who call Yuma home.

” We are second to none when it comes to the actual support of our community, our community leaders, [and] our elected officials. They truly, truly appreciate what we do and for them to have that trust and faith, ” said Chief Lekan .

The Chief also expressed his gratitude for his officers that he called his family.

” Personally, they’re my family. I’m leaving my family behind. I’ve done this for 33 years, ” said Cheif Lekan . ” I was locked in. I loved this job. I wanted to be at work more than anything else. ”

Chief Lekan was not always a police officer, he spent a decade in retail before the idea of being a police officer was presented to him.

He claimed as soon as he was in the force, he was all in on the lifestyle.

” I learned about teamwork. I learned about comradery. I learned about working with people. I learned about building relationships. I guess I drank the Kool-Aid and about two or three weeks into it I was all bought and paid for in this new career lifestyle, ” explained Chief Lekan .

Throughout his career, he worked on cases that captured the community’s attention.

” When we talk about the La Mesa case and the amount of work that was done on it. I mean [there was] a lot of heart and passion and soul. I mean amazing work. You can’t be anything but proud of them to persevere [and] continue to dig and dig and dig until they could get some justice done, ” explained Chief Lekan .

He also added that one of his proudest moments was when he saw his officers take his example during the 2018 Turkey Drive hosted by the Crossroads Mission.

” I got challenged by Sheriff Leon Wilmot . I had gone out and bought some groceries and some turkeys. I showed up at Walmart and dropped it off. It’s all I did. I expected nothing else from my organization, ” explained Chief Lekan . ” They decided to go out and get a bunch of turkeys. They paraded up there. They dropped it off. That was just, it was overwhelming for me to see that they’re following leads. ”

The chief’s final pursuit is to raise money for the fraternal order of the police’s fallen officer monument. You can donate to that cause at his open house on Wednesday.