BEATRICE – A new police chief has been settling into his new job in Beatrice. John Hickman and his family come to the area from Glendive, Montana…where he led a department in a community of about five thousand residents.


"Montana is the sportsmen's paradise and I'm all about hunting and fishing and all those things outdoors, so that was pretty hard to leave...and it's a gorgeous area, it's in the Badlands and it's beautiful. But, coming to Nebraska is a little more like I'm used to in the Carolinas. There's some trees here which is really nice. There's some greenery. As it rains, you get some green grass and everything.  Out there everything's brown most of the year....so it's definitely different when it comes to the topography."


Hickman says the Beatrice Department is about two-and-a-half times larger than the department in Glendive…..and has a school resource officer program and separate investigations division…which are not common in smaller departments.  He said having two canines for drug investigations is a great asset in a city the size of Beatrice.  Hickman says he’s been very impressed with the Beatrice Police department, its officers and dispatch personnel.


"We've got a very dedicated team of people...a very competent team of people. They know their jobs, they do them very well. It's been very nice. A lot of times when you go to an agency you never know what you're getting. Some places you go to, there's a lot to correct. It's obvious Bruce (Lang) put a lot of work into it when he was chief here...and the staff is very, very good....I've been very impressed."


Hickman says he’s spent the first few weeks during the transition evaluating what the department has.  "When I got here there wasn't any glaring things that we had to change right away. We want to see what we do really good and then we want to see what we can do better. I think if you're going to make a change, you don't make a change just to say you did. You make a change to make yourself better or more professional, so we're looking at those kinds of things. One of the things I've pushed with the staff is the community policing aspect of it. I want us to ramp that up even more. We do a really good job of it currently, but I think you can always to better. We're looking at new ways of expanding that and new things we can implement."


Hickman says one goal of police departments is that in addition to the duty to enforce the law, having officers involved in the community helps the public see police as real people, not just “a uniform walking down the street”.


John and Elizabeth Hickman have three children…sons Austin and Colton and daughter Savannah. Austin is serving overseas in the U.S. Army. Elizabeth Hickman is an Air Force veteran who is a mental health counselor.


(John Hickman commented Thursday, on KWBE’s Ask the Mayor program)