Parker Stevens

FAIRMONT — A new face has joined the Fairmont Police Department. Parker Stevens was born in Fairmont and grew up in Truman, where he attended school. Stevens’ interest in law enforcement stems from his grandfather, who served as a Captain in the Fairmont Police Department before retiring in 1988.

“That’s where I got my interest, from hearing his stories,” Stevens said. “Everyone would come up to him and say “How’s it going, Captain?” He worked for this department for 26 years, and hearing how people looked up to him and respected him got me interested.”

Stevens went on to pursue his career choice by obtaining a two-year degree and getting valuable experience as an intern and finding part-time work.

“I went over to Minnesota West in Worthington and completed my A.A.S. degree for my certificate in law enforcement. In between those two years, I did my internship with the Fairmont Police Department and the [Martin County] Sheriff’s office.

“This last summer, in 2020, I got hired as a part-time deputy with the Sheriff’s office in June. Then I got hired in October with the Truman Police Department, and then I accepted this full-time position in Fairmont in February.”

Stevens noted that he was very grateful to be able to work in the same department as his grandfather. He also received a personal honor from the department, tying into his grandfather’s service.

“I have his retirement case at home with all his old badges and Fairmont actually ended up giving me his badge number. The only other guy who had V6 was my grandfather, so that really meant a lot to me.

“I was was just so grateful for the opportunity to come here. The goal is always to become full-time, and that’s kind of tough right away out of school because they want to hire someone with experience. So I was grateful for the Sheriff’s Office for giving me that experience and for Fairmont to take a chance hiring a younger officer.”

Stevens also shared that he appreciates the community-oriented focus of the department.

“I really like the department because they do a lot of things like Shop-With-A-Cop, Adopt-A-Cop where kids can get to know and build trust with officers, National Night Out, and the Cops-and-Bobbers fishing event. I just really like how they’re very community-minded.”

Stevens says he now plans to focus on building his experience as he looks toward the future.

“Fairmont has a lot of opportunities to possibly move up,” he said. “They have four Sergeants positions where I’d like to move up later down the road. There are so many different certificates you can do and training [events] you can attend, and I’d like to attend a few of those.”