43
YPD officer Mikus retires after 32 years
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Dan Mikus parlayed trying to get a date into a career of more than 32 years as a city police officer.
His last day on the job was Friday, feted with a cake by his fellow officers on day turn, where he has worked for several years. He has patrolled a beat on the West Side for the last few years but said he has worked every beat in the city over his career.
Mikus, a Chaney High School graduate, recalled that he’d been a student at Youngstown State University. There was a friend of his sister’s he wanted to date, who asked him to take the police entry-level test. “She knocked on my door and said, ‘I thought we’d go together,’” Mikus said.
Mikus went and took the test and passed, and began his career on the force in late 1981.
He said times are different for policemen today, especially rookies, and a lot of that is because of the legal system.
He said officers need to be more highly trained when they begin their careers so that their actions can stand up under scrutiny in court. He said that has led to a lot more higher education, including bachelor’s and sometimes master’s degrees.
“It’s more of a profession now,” Mikus said.
Mikus said there are a lot of good people in Youngstown, but he said one big change from when he started is that a lot of young people think they are entitled to things without working for them. He said he runs into this commonly on the street.
He said two of the worst calls he took are when he responded one day to a patrolman who was severely beaten with his flashlight, and when he found a baby that had been stabbed and thrown out of a second-story window at a Roxbury Avenue home in 2000.
He said the officers he has worked with are close-knit because of the nature of their job.
“This is truly the best band of brothers I could ever envision,” Mikus said.
The part of town that has seen the biggest change since he started is the West Side, because of the number of rental properties. Mikus said people in rentals often are transient and have no roots in the community — and it took away the stability the West Side once had.
Officer Rick Baldwin worked a South Side beat with Mikus for several years and said he will be missed.
“He’s very knowledgeable of his job and very, very professional,” Baldwin said. “He’s a real team player. He’s more than willing to help the other officers out.”
Chief Robin Lees occasionally worked the same beat as Mikus when they were both patrol officers and said his experience will be tough to replace. That is why it is so important to have younger officers trained so they can acquire their own experience.
“I will miss him personally, and the department will miss him collectively,” Lees said.
Mikus, by the way, said he never saw his sister’s friend again after he took that civil-service test.