Doug Shannon’s days once included responding to life-and-death medical emergencies and brutal car wrecks. But when he wakes up on Aug. 1, he’ll have nothing to do. And it’ll be bittersweet.
After 35 years in law enforcement, the Mount Vernon-Lisbon police chief still waves hello to every car and citizen he drives by on his patrol. But he knows his retirement is around the corner, effective July 1 for a month of paid leave before his official resignation. And he’ll miss the Mount Vernon community most.
“It’s going to be probably a culture shock for me, just like, ‘Oh, I don’t have any responsibility. Every day is a Saturday now,’” Shannon said. “I think everybody needs to do something that they’re passionate for, whether you’re paid for it or not, and help other people. It’s the community aspect of why we do what we do.”
The Mount Vernon City Council, albeit with hesitation and reluctant groans, unanimously approved Shannon’s resignation at its Feb. 19 meeting, making him a retired man come Aug. 1.
The Mount Vernon native for years had thought about the move, especially as Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System — or IPERS — drives the timeline.
With IPERS financial benefits maxing out at 30 years, Shannon’s 55th birthday in June will satisfy the requirement for him to retire.
But satisfaction with the work he’s done has motivated it too.
“It’s truly been an honor and privilege,” Shannon said at the meeting of his service to the city. “All the city staff have been great. I told them 100 times — the last eight years have been the best years of my time in Mount Vernon … It’s been an amazing career. I’ll miss it for sure, miss the people, miss the activities. But it’ll be nice to do a lot more fishing.”
Upon studying criminal justice at Kirkwood Community College, a friend who was an officer at the Mount Vernon Police Department introduced Shannon to its reserve police officer program.
That ultimately motivated him to pursue certification as a full-time officer through the Cedar Rapids Police Academy.
After a year with the Belle Plaine Police Department, Shannon took an opening in Mount Vernon in 1993 and stuck by the town ever since. From patrol officer for four years to sergeant for 18 more, Shannon was promoted to police chief in 2015. Now retiring after 10 years in that role, Shannon’s three decades in law enforcement come with wisdom and appreciation.
“You’re going to see people at their worst; you’re going to see people have the most amazing experiences you could have anywhere as well, so it’s the best of the best and the worst of the worst,” Shannon said. “It’s a rewarding experience as well.
So when you take all of that in, it’s really, truly why I’ve enjoyed it. I still enjoy what I do. It’s helping others.”
To serve and protect
On his routine bike rides, Greg West of Mount Vernon always looks both ways before crossing the street. This time was no different, both sides of the road clear for him to go. But upon entering the road, he’d somehow missed the Ford Explorer hurtling toward him.
Before West could dodge it, the car clipped his back tire, sending him flying 32 feet from the collision. He blacked out.
Upon coming to his senses, the first face he saw was then-Mount Vernon police officer Doug Shannon.
Concussed, an open fracture in his left pinky, and a cracked jaw that required 80 stitches across his face — in the moment, West writhed in pain. But Shannon stayed calm.
“He was talking to me and just holding my head until the ambulance got there,” West said. “[He was] just talking to me and just trying to relax.”
West’s wife, Stephanie, was at home for their son’s overnight birthday party when Shannon called her, patiently letting her know Greg had been in an accident but that he was OK and looking to speak with
her.
“I think every time you see Doug, he almost has a calming presence about him,” Greg West said. “He’s always professional … I couldn’t tell you how many times I thanked him and the ambulance crew afterwards because it was just — in retrospect you get a better vision of it, and [I’m] just profoundly grateful for the care that I had that day.”
Making work a gift
That incident was 11 years ago. Since then, Greg fully recovered, Stephanie was elected to the Mount Vernon City Council, and Shannon was promoted to police chief.
In his 10 years of service in the role, Mount Vernon has developed into the definition of a tight-knit small town. Now, the city in a brighter place, Shannon is retiring. And those around him are reflecting on it in bittersweetness.
When Stephanie West was first elected to the Mount Vernon City Council, Shannon reached out to chat over lunch, answer any questions she had, and outline his vision for her that included a K-9 for the department.
“There’s the book of ordinances and all of that kind of stuff, but in terms of how you navigate through this, nobody really tells you all of that stuff,” she said. “You do have, hopefully have, mentors that have been part of that. They give you advice and that kind of thing. But anyway, that stood out to me.”
So, reflecting on her work alongside Shannon in the position, Stephanie West called it a “gift.” She recalled a friend in an exercise class similarly telling her, “Doug is the best boss I’ve ever had.”
“The people that work for him truly respect him and also like to work with him, and as a city council member, I feel like he’s always done a very good job to keep us informed,” Stephanie West said.
“If we were to turn something into an ordinance, we need to know — what does that mean to actually have to enforce that ordinance? And so he would provide us input as we were making decisions, which was really, really valuable.”
Mount Vernon Mayor Tom Wieseler felt the same, grateful for Shannon’s work over the department upon hearing other mayors’ complaints of their officers engaged in tasing bouts and high-speed chases.
“He’s very even-tempered and even keel and didn’t get too wound up about anything but still reacted appropriately,” Wieseler said. “We didn’t have officers being cowboys … They’re serious. They’re very professional.”
In one of his first true encounters with Shannon, Wieseler quickly appreciated the work he does as police chief. Wieseler had just been elected to Mount Vernon’s city council when Shannon offered to take him to a firearm simulator in Cedar Rapids.
“That was his — Doug’s — way to educate me a little bit about what goes on in their world as a police officer carrying your gun, like, holy smokes,” he said.
“How lucky I am that we respect law and order, respect the blue, and I respect the officers up one side and down the other. But [I’m] not trying to micromanage them either. They are appropriate.”
Grief, milestones, and progress
An example Wieseler noted came not quite in a life-or-death situation but one equally as tragic.
Let out from his handler’s home on a bathroom break at 10 p.m. on Feb. 24, Monster — the Mount Vernon-Lisbon police K-9 — disappeared. The resulting search with drones and first responders caught nothing — until 12 hours later when Monster was found dead in a pond in the 900 block of Willow Lane in Lisbon.
“If you were ignoring him, he was very good about invading your personal space,” Shannon said. “He would come up — you’d be typing a report, or officers were working on their computers — and your arm goes flying because he comes up and sticks his head right underneath your arm.”
Monster had been with the department since 2018, its first full-time K-9 officer, purchased with donated funds. He was trained in drug detection, officer protection, and suspect apprehension but was also a friendly face in schools and at festivals.
“We’ve been grieving for sure,” Shannon said. “It’s quiet around the office. We’re missing the activity that Monster brought. But on the same token, we’re honoring him and will honor him and his service to our community, and the community will miss him for sure.”
Shannon kept Wieseler informed throughout the process, handling it with a professionalism that included a lineup of the local firetrucks and police officers to transport Monster’s cremains to the police station.
And when the department honored Monster’s life, 200 people attended the service. So Wieseler prepared a statement, and Shannon stepped up to help him.
“I couldn’t have read the statement; I would have fallen apart,” he said. “But Doug read my statement, and he was able to keep his composure and did a good job with that … That was pretty monumental.”
Arguably, Shannon’s biggest milestone was his consolidation of the Mount Mount Vernon, Lisbon to miss police chief Doug Shannon in retirement Vernon and Lisbon police departments into one, covering more land in more time at a cheaper cost across the neighboring towns.
Discussions of the consolidation started when Shannon first joined the Mount Vernon Police Department in 1993, both it and the Lisbon Police Department were restricted by part-time service. Once chief, he resumed discussions that were again stalled by a lack of resources, namely a building to house both departments.
With the departure of Lisbon’s police chief, though, Mount Vernon purchased what became the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department station, and the Lisbon City Council aided Shannon in making the consolidation in 2020.
“It felt like the right time,” he said. “One of the best attributes of it is that we, the officers, we’re all going to the same calls anyway. So if Lisbon was out, Mount Vernon was going over to help them. If the
call was over here, Lisbon was coming over here to help us. So our officers were already commingling and responding to the same stuff, working together side-by-side all the time anyway.”
And shortly after, a sudden turnover of staff at the West Branch Police Department brought the department to Shannon — who was willing to help cover some of its patrol despite 25 miles separating the two towns.
“I don’t get any complaints about the police department, and that’s huge,” Wieseler said. “I’m very fortunate that, under his leadership, our police department has been doing a great job for the citizenry. That’s an asset for the community. And I’m hoping that the culture — I mean, he’s that culture, basically — and I’m hoping to continue with his successor.”
Looking forward
With Shannon’s retirement on June 30, and one month of paid leave after that, Wieseler will miss Shannon’s resourcefulness. Shannon was always responsive to community wants and needs, putting speed indicators up on side streets upon complaints of speeding cars.
“If there’s any way to accommodate, he does that,” Wieseler said, later noting replacement Jason Blinks won’t be far off. Blinks will serve as temporary-interim police chief starting July 1 until Dec. 31. Then, the department will conduct a review to decide if the interim tag should be removed.
He first popped onto Wieseler’s radar when Shannon approached him about an officer, Blinks, interested in higher law enforcement education. So the city paid for his degree from Upper Iowa University in law enforcement training, keeping an eye on bringing him on once he neared graduation.
“In a sense, we’ve kind of been grooming him in that role for a few years,” Wieseler said. “And then when it came time for Doug to leave, Doug and the [police] board felt good recommending Jason.”
Blinks might not have the experience Shannon did, but Wieseler is happy to continue leadership by locals, Shannon living in Mount Vernon and Blinks in Lisbon. And Wieseler believes he’s got the
right demeanor to have the same impact.
“The right level of concern — he’s a smart guy,” Wieseler said. “He’s done it all. Like I said, he’s local and so on. He’s well- respected in the community … The core of what we’re looking for here is strength in law enforcement and leading of officers … that Jason will be good for us.”
A friend in plainclothes
But Shannon made as much of an impact in plainclothes — as a person, a human being, and a resident of Mount Vernon.
The West family first got to know Shannon when its youngest son was in archery in elementary school, which Shannon coached. And he did so with a patience and humility mirroring that of his broader role as police chief.
“Nothing grandiose about Doug,” Greg West said. “He’s someone I wish I knew better because he’s someone that exudes confidence and is excellent at what he does.”
Indeed, who he is as Mount Vernon-Lisbon police chief reflects who he is as a person. That’s attending city council meetings, setting up the city’s summertime festivals, and organizing a police escort out of the city for local teams traveling to state tournaments.
“That’s important,” Stephanie West said.
“Kids in our community need to know that they can trust the police, and they don’t have to be afraid of them.”
Reflecting on the last 30 years in law enforcement, Shannon finds that impact sticks out above all else.
The retirement does not mark the last working day of his life, Shannon is open to working again, although not in the area of law enforcement. But the next years of his life will be spent fishing, biking, and spending more time with his wife and kids, never veering too far from engaging with the community around him.
“I can sit back here 35 years later and look back on my career and be proud of what we’ve accomplished or what we’ve done,” he said. “The service to the community, trying to be fair to the people, doing what needs to be done in law enforcement — it’s not always a glorious job and stuff like that, but there’s a lot of honor that goes with it as well.”