Chief James McMillen: Information is key to our success

As many of you know, we work closely with the Standard Democrat on a daily basis. We are grateful for the Standard allowing us to have some space to talk about our department and our efforts in bringing safety to our residents. We have partnered to do a monthly article about our department, events, current trends on crime and other messages that we feel should be spotlighted. Seeing that I am relatively new in this position, I feel I should introduce myself as your new director of Sikeston Public Safety, Chief James B. McMillen.

I was born in Sikeston in 1974 and raised on a farm in New Madrid County. My parents are retired and now live in Sikeston. They raised the four of us (a brother and two sisters) while I graduated high school in 1992 and received a degree in agricultural business from Southeast Missouri State University in 1996. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. I was easily bored and followed my roots until I seemed to be drawn to my interest in law enforcement.

In 1997, I married my wife, Katie, and we started a family together. A year later I was hired by Sikeston DPS and I began my career, assigned to fire division. The pace of the work and the work itself was very rewarding. In 1999 I started my first shift as a patrol officer. In 2001, I was assigned to detective division under Chief Drew Juden. I would spend the next five years working as a general detective before I would take a position as a sergeant with the department in 2005. I spent the next six years working in various positions in patrol, fire and over the school resource program. I also spent a good deal of time training others while working in these positions mentioned above. I instructed trainings such as defensive tactics, Taser, asp baton and also served in extra positions in areas such as the special operations group, honor guard and the rescue squad. In 2007 Drew Juden assigned me as the department’s first public information officer. This is probably what I’m most known for, although initially I wasn’t sure it was something that I wanted to do. I found out later that it was tremendously beneficial for the department, and it was also very worthwhile.

In 2011, I was promoted to detective lieutenant and after some retirements, I was promoted captain of Patrol in 2012. Most recently in 2017, I was appointed as the assistant chief under Director Mike Williams and last September appointed as director upon his retirement.

For 22 years now, I have lived in and worked for Sikeston DPS. I now have three beautiful daughters that I could not be more proud of; Julia, 22; Audra, 16; and Elizabeth, 8. All of these girls are (or did) attend Sikeston R-6 schools, and Julia is a recent graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, now working at Saint Francis Medical Center.

I am very excited to be where I am at in my career. I honestly never thought that I would ever be in the position that I currently hold. I look back over the great supervisors, co-workers and role models that I worked around, and I’m thankful for all they taught me. I realize our duty is more important that I can say in this small article.

But, I will say my family lives here, and I want the best our department and our city. Like many of our city employees, we have a vested interest in seeing this city is a safe place to live. Not just for our own families, but for yours, too. Our city is growing, and we have seen remarkable improvement over the last two decades.

Lastly, I want to say that information is the key to our success; and so we can’t succeed without your sharing information. You have a department full of highly trained and willing officers who are prepared to act on your tips and information.

If you see suspicious activity or witness a crime, please make sure we receive that information. You can call us 24 hours a day at 573-471-4711 or message us on Facebook @SikestonDps.

I’m looking forward to the coming year and I hope we will hear from you. Thank you.