MIDDLEPORT — At around 7 in the morning, John Swick starts his day at the police station, as he has for most of the past 30 years as police chief.
After checking over reports and making phone calls, he either makes his way out to patrol the all-to-familiar village streets or he pops in to Royalton-Hartland Schools.
When Friday rolls around, Swick will be starting his day at the Middleport Police Station for the final time as he is set to retire after 46 years.
According to records with the New York State Association of Police Chiefs, it’s believed that Swick is the longest-serving police chief in the state.
“To do 46 years in any career is a long time but to do 46 years in police work is virtually unheard of,” Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti said.
“I don’t brag on that point, because … nobody would make it at the big departments for 37 years. This is a unique situation here in a small village, it’s a community, you know? Even though I don’t know how many people would make it here for 37 years,” Swick said.
For at least the first dozen years of his career, Swick worked several late hours as a young police officer. That continued into the first few years that he became chief in 1987, too.
“I worked three more years on midnights before I was able to convince the village board to hire me another full-time guy so I could work days,” Swick said.
Regardless of when he worked, Swick always knew he was in the right place, spending the entirety of his career with the Middleport Police Department.
“I’ve always felt there was never any question in my calling. I felt like, this is where I’m supposed to be,” Swick said.
While he said that he is not “R.O.D.” – meaning retired on duty – he has been looking back fondly on his career ahead of his quickly approaching retirement.
“I’m ready to be done. Forty-six years, three months and eight days is a long time,” Swick said in a June 11 interview.
Getting the job
That 46-year career began on March 20, 1978, when Swick was first hired by the Middleport Police Department at the age of 19.
Growing up in the Johnson’s Creek area, Swick recalled several memories of seeing state troopers do roadblocks in front of his childhood home and watching several police shows on TV.
He specifically recalled one visit from a Middleport police officer to his class at Royalton-Hartland High School that ultimately piqued his interest in pursuing a career in law enforcement and led him to ultimately study criminal justice at Niagara County Community College.
Then in early 1978, he received a call from an old friend, Ross Annable.
“John and I, we want to Sunday school together at the Hartland Baptist Church. So that’s how long I’ve known him, since being kids and (we) grew up together in the area,” Annable recalls.
Annable, who had been hired by MPD the year prior, recommended Swick to take on his first law enforcement job there.
“When I left and went to the sheriff’s department, the chief at the time, Earl Woodworth, asked me if I knew any other college kids that might be interested,” Annable recalled. “So I said ‘Yes, sir, I got just guy for it. So John replaced me on that position there.”
“Earl Woodworth thought he had a couple of geniuses because we were the first two college kids he ever hired,” Swick joked.
The first stop
It was during those formative years that Swick learned the ropes of the trade in the community he grew up in.
Swick recalled learning an important lesson early on from writing his first traffic ticket.
While riding with another officer, they noticed a young driver outpacing them on Vernon Street.
“We pulled him over ... And I still feel bad to this day because Weber had me write him a ticket and to this day, I don’t really know if he was speeding or not,” Swick recalled.
That initial traffic stop taught Swick an important lesson about how he would write tickets.
“Ever since that day, I’ve always discouraged my guys from writing pace tickets, because I don’t care if you’re following a guy up Route 31 and follow them all the way to Gasport. It’s still difficult to tell whether he’s doing what you think he’s doing,” Swick said.
Living in a smaller community, Swick said he is sometimes still reminded of that first ticket.
“His wife does my income taxes,” Swick said.
Good and the bad
Throughout his long career, there are several crucial moments that Swick says he remembers, “like it was yesterday”
One such incident involving a high-speed chase happened early in Swick’s career.
“Early in my career when I was on midnights, there was a stolen car out of Lockport. It was spotted heading east. Well, sure enough, it drove through Middleport, so I started to pursue it. From here to Medina, he was hauling,” Swick recalled.
Ultimately the chase led to a fatal crash that saw the driver ejected from the car upon impact.
“It’s something you don’t forget,” Swick said.
Much later in Swick’s career, he would be faced with another dire situation.
This time, it was a response to a fire in an apartment on Locust Drive in the village in 2014.
When he arrived at the scene, he had received word that two women along with four small children were still inside the burning building.
“I kicked the door in and the downstairs was all smoke. We ran around the back and the woman was hanging out the upstairs back window,” Swick said.
Ultimately, he was successfully able to assist everybody out of the house through the second-story window.
Swick’s rescue efforts were also recognized by The Judges and Police Executive Conference of Niagara County.
In and out of uniform
Whether on patrol or at home, Swick has been described by those who know them best as a friendly man who supports his community.
“I always thought he was very fair, obviously very honest. He couldn’t do his job for as long and as well without being both of those things,” Middleport mayor Dan Dodge said.
Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti was one of several prospective police officers that Swick has interviewed over the years.
While Filicetti was not ultimately hired by Swick for his first police job, he said he took away some valuable lessons in his first job interview with him.
“You can just tell that he took a lot of pride in the police department and just the way he talked about how you should conduct yourself when you work there,” Filicetti said. “It’s always struck me how even in frustrating times you don’t see anger from him.
Similarly, MPD Sergeant Roland Johnson, Swick’s apparent predecessor, said he’s learned just about “everything” from his boss in his 21-year career with the MPD.
“I was only 21 at the time (when I was hired), he was just a big father figure showing me how to basically go through life and doing the job how you were supposed to do it,” Johnson said.
According to his son, Jeff, that was the kind of man he was at home, too.
“He always gave us the best advice. It seemed like all of his hobbies and free time were centered around his family, taking kids camping, or to sporting events. It seemed like his world revolved around us,” he said.
Swick also acknowledged that staying close to home and being there for his family was the main driving force for him to stay in Middelport all these years.
In his retirement, Swick said he probably won’t wander too far from his home in the village.
Several in the community anticipate he’ll be sticking around, too.
“We’re definitely going to miss him. We told him the other day that we’re gonna save him a seat at the board meetings. He can still come in and sit in and we’ll save a seat along the wall,” Dodge said.
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