{"id":1319111,"date":"2020-03-26T17:58:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T23:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=995058"},"modified":"2020-03-27T08:40:41","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T14:40:41","slug":"2020-locals-choice-glenwood-springs-favorite-community-policeman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/2020-locals-choice-glenwood-springs-favorite-community-policeman\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 Locals\u2019 Choice: Glenwood Springs\u2019 favorite community policeman"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Glenwood Springs Police lieutenant John Hassell was selected for the 2020 Locals’ Choice top cop.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Since 2003, Glenwood Springs Police Department Lt. John Hassell has won the Locals\u2019 Choice award for top cop five or six times \u2014 he\u2019s not sure.<\/p>\n

Hassell is also not sure why the community keeps nominating and voting for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, there are 20 other officers that work just as hard I do, that are as much deserving of this as I am,\u201d Hassell said.<\/p>\n

If he had to guess why he won the 2020 Locals\u2019 Choice award, he\u2019d say that it\u2019s partially because of his community-facing role.<\/p>\n

Former Glenwood Springs Police Chief Terry Wilson, the 2019 Locals\u2019 Choice winner, isn\u2019t surprised at Hassell\u2019s return to the top of the top law enforcement officer pedestal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the epitome of what we want in a police official in our town. He\u2019s very compassionate, very intelligent, very people-oriented, and he\u2019s one of the most outstanding family men that I\u2019ve ever known in my life,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Hassell grew up in Detroit and moved to Colorado for the same reason as so many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I finished college, my wife \u2014 then-girlfriend \u2014 and I decided to move to Colorado to have outdoor life and ski,\u201d Hassell said.<\/p>\n

After the police academy, he and his wife Sarah moved to Glenwood Springs in 1996 where he got his first job in law enforcement as a patrol officer.<\/p>\n

Police work was a natural fit for Hassell. His brother was an officer in Detroit where they both grew up, and his bachelor\u2019s in psychology has come in handy, but the main reason he wanted to do police work was to be of service to the public.<\/p>\n

For Hassell, community policing is about \u201cbeing there for the public themselves, to assist with people in their needs \u2014 Anyone who\u2019s either a victim of crime, or might need some guidance with family members, health issues, drug or alcohol problems, I can be that avenue for them,\u201d Hassell said.<\/p>\n

In his time with the Glenwood Springs Police Department, Hassell has worked in many roles.<\/p>\n

After 7 years on patrol, he joined the investigations bureau as a detective for 12 years.<\/p>\n

During that time, he became (and remains) the only certified polygraph examiner in the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

Wilson recalls the polygraph training as one of many times Hassell convinced him of trying something new.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnny found a way to sell me on ideas, new things, things he wanted to try, things that were innovative,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Large or small, Wilson said Hassell could research ideas, evaluate the benefits and costs, and present the changes in a complete package, as he did with the polygraph certification. Hassell had to be away from the force for several months for training, but it eventually paid off, Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe convinced me that it would be a good thing for us to have. Over the years, because of his research and everything, it became a good tool not just for us, but for the entire region,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Among Hassell\u2019s proudest moments in law enforcement was the investigation of a fatal 2004 home invasion and stabbing<\/a> case.<\/p>\n

Hassell was charged with the follow-up investigation of Federico Garcia Hernandez\u2019s death, and in the days and weeks following the incident, old-fashioned canvassing brought a break in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was kind of a public outreach for assistance. I literally started going door to door knocking on hotel rooms, and some community members there were able to provide information to lead me to some suspects, which led me to convictions, in the end,\u201d Hassell said.<\/p>\n

Now, Hassell is the operations lieutenant for the police department, where he manages the patrol division.<\/p>\n

He also gets plenty of face-time with community members, giving trainings to groups and individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily a discussion about police work, but it\u2019s just getting to know the community, and them getting to know you as people, as opposed to just a uniform,\u201d Hassell said.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenwood Springs Police lieutenant John Hassell was selected for the 2020 Locals’ Choice top cop.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent Since 2003, Glenwood Springs Police Department Lt. John Hassell has won the Locals\u2019 Choice award for top cop five or six times \u2014 he\u2019s not sure. Hassell is also not sure why the community keeps nominating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-02 20:28:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319120,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319111\/revisions\/1319120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}