Mike Jones recalls 35-plus years with Saline County Sheriff's Office

SALINE COUNTY - Recently retired Saline County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Jones said he's enjoyed his career as a deputy, and the variety it brought.

"George Henley hired me Oct. 10, 1984 as a jailer, and I'd been there ever since," Jones said.

He retired at the end of March.

Originally, he said, he wasn't looking for a career in law enforcement.

"I went to school at Murray State (University) for agriculture, and then my dad quit farming. Somebody said they were taking applications up there, so I filled one out. I thought if I wanted to stay, I could stay a while, and if I wanted to move on, I could move on."

Jones ended up staying a while.

When he retired on March 31, Jones had put in 35 years, five months and 21 days with the sheriff's office, making him the second longest-serving member of the department behind Lynda Henley, who was hired Dec. 1, 1978.

"I started out on midnight shift in the old jail," Jones said. "There was one jailer, one dispatcher and a female matron. Three people, maybe two sometimes. I'm not sure how many inmates that jail held, maybe 50."

He worked at the jail for a couple of years, moving to day shift after a year on the job.

"I also became a process server. I took over for Mike Gibbons when he left and went to Harrisburg PD," Jones said. "I was a process server for 15 years, and they kept giving me more and more responsibility. I was a deputy practically by that point. I was answering calls quite a bit."

When the county sent him to police academy, it was a bit of a humorous moment.

"They went around and asked how long you had been hired by your department," he said. "When I said 10 years, they said 'What are you doing here?'"

Eventually, he had the opportunity to move up again to a position in which he spent most of his career.

"Jim Wheatcroft retired, I think around 2000, and he asked me if I wanted the job, and at first I said no. He was an investigator, and no one else really wanted to do it. So, I did it. I ended up in investigations for 18 or 19 years."

It was a move that agreed with him, he said.

"I liked being in investigations. There was something new every day. But the biggest part about investigations is the paperwork. It's about 80 percent paperwork. You don't see that on TV. But if the paperwork isn't right, if everything is not documented, then there goes your case."

Jones worked several homicides with the assistance of the Illinois State Police, and a wide variety of other investigations.

"They were all different. Just strange, some of them," Jones said.

Though he's now retired, he's still busy, something to which his wife T.J. will attest.

"People ask if I have a 'honey-do' list for him, but he's busy all the time," she said.

The couple also both continue to serve the county as deputy coroners as well.

He said changes to the way police officers are treated by some members of the public make it a good time to retire.

"That's one thing that has changed, the lack of respect. We used to get a call because someone was in trouble, and they were glad when we got there. It got to the point where half the time, people would call then start yelling at us the minute we got there because we were there," he said.

Overall, though, he said he's enjoyed his time in uniform.

"It certainly was interesting," he said.