An era is ending in Garner and you probably didn’t notice.
It is hard to conceive of a better police chief than Garner’s Brandon Zuidema, the energetic, community-focused chief who has led the Garner force for 10 years and gained statewide, national and international recognition in the process.
He is taking a position as an assistant town manager in Morrisville, a career change that he knew was coming eventually and is suddenly here after 26 ½ years of carrying a gun, driving a car with blue lights and rushing into places as most people rush out.
Zuidema, a native of New York, did his job as few others have. We were lucky to have him. We’re going to miss him.
He came to Garner from Lynchburg, Va., where he was a police captain. Hardin Watkins, then the town manager, interviewed him for four and a half hours before deciding he was the guy who could move a very good police department to the next level.
But Watkins probably couldn’t imagine that he was hiring a man who is not only held in high esteem in the county, but also in the state. And in the nation. And all around the globe.
You probably didn’t know that either.
That’s not surprising. Zuidema does many things well, but commanding the stage is not one of them, unless you count his performance in a play about the 1987 football team. He believed in being involved in the community and agreed to take the role of Chris Dorman, a fiery fullback and linebacker. Zuidema played Dorman by being Brandon Zuidema on stage.
There was a toughness inherent in both. Fearless. Motivated. No backing down to a challenge. And just as importantly, living by the idea of it doesn’t matter who gets the credit as long as the job gets done.
This is the guy who has walked in our midst, enjoying almost every day protecting and serving the people of Garner.
He told an overflow group at the Garner Civitan Clubhouse, a place where he spent many hours in community service, that he enjoyed most days.
Photo by Rick Mercier
Not all the days were filled with fighting crime, though. There were many discussions about “birds, hens, deer” and the other problems that crop up in a community. Like traffic. And a dead animal on the road.
All the problems were important to someone and he treated them as such.
He was thankful for the people that he worked with. He called them “good folks” and said that he pursued the job in Garner 10 years ago because it was big enough to present law enforcement challenges and small enough to know the people that he was working with.
Rodney Dickerson, the town manager, summed up the feelings of many of the people at the dinner. Dickerson said he was sorry to see the Chief leave, but happy for him to begin this next phase of his career. Everybody knew this day was coming. Most everybody is sad that has come now.
Zuidema said people had asked him if he knew what he was doing. He said he hoped so. This day has been a long time in coming and it is now time to start a new challenge.
He handled the old challenges very well.
“Garner is a better because he was here,” said Matt Poole, the Garner fire chief.
Zuidema leaves a department that is a flagship agency, a department that has impacted police departments all over the state.
The speakers at the dinner, many of them the chiefs of police in other communities, lauded Zuidema as a servant leader chief. No task was beneath him, nor any task too tough to tackle.
He has been recognized on the state, national and international level. He has been chairman of the SafeShield Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The SafeShield Committee is dedicated to protecting law enforcement officers.
Some of the programs that he developed in Garner have been emulated in other places. One of his favorites was the Garner P.A.A.L. program (Police Athletic/Activities League). P.A.A.L. is a nonprofit organization that provides opportunities to enhance youth and family achievement while improving police-community relationships and reducing delinquency in our community.
He was a chief that took care of the immediate while looking to the future.
“I look forward to seeing our first law enforcement officer from the P.A.A.L. program,” he said. “I am so glad that we started it.”
And the folks in Garner are so glad that he has been a part of our lives for 10 years, even though many of us never noticed.