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The Troy Police Department’s mission is to protect and serve.

Troy Police Chief Randall Barr said the department’s 62 officers provide 24-hour protection for the city, seven day a week.

“We do so much more than just make traffic stops and issue tickets,” Barr said. “People are familiar with the enforcement tasks we are required to do. But, everyday, our officers have an opportunity to make a difference in somebody’s life.”

Barr said the department is divided into three divisions. He said the patrol division makes up the bulk of the police force. He said the department’s Criminal Investigations Division handles the police work for murder and other felonies that require a great deal of investigation.  Barr said the department also had a Special Operations Division that was compromised of three School Resource Officers.

“We have School Resource Officers at all three campuses this year,” Barr said. “So, we have all three campuses covered all day now. That gives our officers an opportunity to interact with students and teachers everyday and that will benefit us and the school down the road.”

Barr said service to the community is an often overlooked portion of a police officer’s job. Barr said a police presence is required from everything from high school and college athletic events to homecoming and Fourth of July parades.

“It takes a lot of officers for parades,” Barr said. “It takes just about every officer we have to pull that off. There’s a lot of traffic control that needs to be done for parades.”

Barr said officers are also involved in traffic details.

“We still have on duty officers lead funeral processions,” Barr said. “A lot of departments don’t do that anymore. They may have off duty officers that are hired for the funeral pro-cession. But, I think it speaks well for our department that we still do funeral processions because those families are hurting and in need.”

Barr said another thing the TPD does that most other departments have abandoned is to unlock cars.

“We still unlock cars and we will continue to do it as long as we can,” Barr said. “That’s something we can do to help people. We look for opportunities to make a difference in somebody’s life every day. It may be as simple as helping someone that has run out of gas or needs help changing a tire.”

Barr said for many officers, helping people is the best part of the job.

“When you see a smile on a kid’s face or help somebody and make a difference, that makes it worthwhile,” Barr said. “It’s something different every day. You don’t know what the calls will hold. It’s a hard job, but if you can make a difference every day, you can shed a light on our performance. That’s something I look forward to every day.”