The Campbell County Police Department has a new face with years of experience.
Stephen Tucker was sworn in as a Campbell County police officer at the Campbell County Fiscal Court meeting Wednesday morning after Campbell County Police Chief Craig Sorrell said rules were modified to attract people with more experience to enter the department. Sorrell said the change was made because people with expertise in the department were retiring.
Tucker is the first officer to attain top officer pay, Sorrell said, since the department started awarding full matching pay for prior police experience.
In the past, if the department hired an officer with more than ten years of service, the most they could get paid for was ten years of experience.
“We found ourselves losing out on qualified officers because others did not have a limit or they were not too excited about a pay reduction,” Sorrell said.
Now, if an officer comes in, the department gives them the pay rate relative to their full-time police experience—capped at 13 years.
Tucker is joining the department with 17 years of experience. He was previously injured in the line of duty and went out on disability. Tucker then began working at the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice, training and instructing new officers, but as his injury improved, he wanted to get back into police work.
“He went back to get his medical condition reevaluated to approve him to come back to be a police officer,” Sorrell said. “So, let’s think about that. He had a free check coming every month, and he gave that up so he could come to be with the police. It’s not something we see much anymore, people giving up free checks.”
Also, during the meeting, Detective Bill McGowan with the Campbell County Police Department was promoted to sergeant.
McGowan previously served with the Erlanger Police Department and has been with Campbell County for just under ten years.
“He’s been a detective here up until today, working cases in the back of late, so he brings a lot of expertise to us and a lot of job knowledge,” Sorrell said. “He competed and won the right to be a sergeant, and we’re happy that he’s making that jump.”
McGowan’s daughter pinned his badge—a tradition in law enforcement during promotion and said she flew in the night before as a surprise for the occasion.
Campbell County Judge Executive Steve Pendery said the department had three people retire in one day, which made for some shuffling in the department.
“When you’re in this line of work in the year 2023, you’ve got to be self-motivated and gain satisfaction out of the job all on your own because there’s a world out there that’s indifferent to a certain extent to the work that you’re doing,” Pendery said. “And that’s true in a lot of places, but well beyond what is true elsewhere in the world, Northern Kentucky and in particular, Campbell County appreciates what the men and women in our force do, and certainly the fiscal court is appreciative of the work that is done.”
