The Ellettsville Police Department recently announced that Pastor Randy McCollum joined the department. He will join the force as a volunteer chaplain and be on call for the officers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
McCollum, who has lived in Ellettsville since 2002, was brought in to help police officers cope with the daily stresses that law enforcement brings into their lives.
“My main purpose will be to support (Ellettsville police officers), to become a friend, a partner with them,” McCollum said. “I will be riding with them occasionally to experience what they experience on the shift.”
Ellettsville Town Marshal Jimmie Durnil said he met McCollum at a funeral several months ago. The two clicked, and he has been after McCollum to serve as chaplain for Ellettsville’s police since then.
“The whole time I was with the state police, I had access to a chaplain,” Durnil said. “It worked out very well several times. Not every day, not every month, not every six months, but every once in a while.”
The marshal said chaplains are helpful to officers who have recently had bad experiences in the field, who have to deliver death notices to families, and whose cumulative experience may have worn them down.
“A lot of times, you just need someone to talk to, to reassure you that it wasn’t your fault,” he said. “I think it’s a big step for us to have that ordained minister who’s going to be here for us when we need it.”
Though McCollum is a volunteer, he said he will work much more than the few hours required by being on call.
“I can’t do a good job when called if I’m not doing the work beforehand,” he said.
Part of that work will be establishing a presence in the community, to be a bridge between police officers and a public that may see police interactions in which something has gone wrong in the media and apply those to all police officers and to establish a network of clergy that can help officers, their families and victims as requested.
“I’m going to try to be as public as I can, to be as interactive as I can,” he said.
McCollum is the full-time pastor at First Baptist Church in Spencer, Indiana.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2016. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.