Perry Police Detective Laura Deaton has accepted a position with the Ottumwa Police Department and will leave the Perry Police Department after seven years on the force.
Deaton’s final shift will be Aug. 16. Her departure makes the Perry Police Department’s second loss of a mid-career officer this summer. Sgt. Matt Aswegan took a position in July with the Polk City Police Department.
Deaton was promoted to the rank of detective in the Perry department in November 2017. She said the decision to leave the Perry community has been hard.
“It was horrible making this decision,” Deaton said Wednesday. “I love the department. I love what I do. (Officer) Wayne (Shuttler) has been the best partner all these years I could have ever asked for. Wayne is so full of knowledge, and he’s been such a good partner to me. I will very dearly miss Wayne.”
She was equally quick to praise Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn and Sgt. Jim Archer.
“I have grown by leaps and bounds because of Chief,” she said, “and Sarge has been there for me at some horrible, tough moments when I needed a father figure, and Sarge was right there. And then Wayne, who’s definitly been the best partner a girl could ever ask for. So yeah, it’s tough leaving the department.”
Too low a salary is the hard fact behind Deaton’s decision to go south. A country girl at heart, she said her salary on the Perry force will never afford her a place in the country.
“Living in Perry’s the first time I’ve had to live in town,” she said. “I’d like to live out of town, but I’ve come to the realization here in the last couple of years that on the salary I make, because I’m single, there’s nothing around here in the country I can afford. So it came down to the really hard choice of do I stay here and do the job I love so much and the town and the department, or do I move, change departments and go somewhere where I can afford to live the way I’d like to live.”
The Ottumwa Police Department is 40 members strong, she said, with more opportunities to advance career-wise. Property values in Wapello County will also be easier to bear than in fast-growing Dallas County.
“I’ve come to know and grow up with some of the generations here, so it’s a little tough to let go,” Deaton said, “but I’m also at the point where I’d like to be happy in my personal life right now as well, too.”
She said she discussed her reason for leaving openly and honestly with Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson and “a councilwoman,” who took responsibility for the rate of pay but did not offer to raise it.
The Perry Police Department will now begin the process of hiring an officer to fill a third gap in the ranks of the city’s public safety agency.
I was born and raised in Ottumwa and still having a lot of family in town and around Wapello County. I certainly know what conditions in O Town can be like. Suffice to say Detective Deaton is very possibly taking on a much more stressful position and heavier workload. I sincerely wish her the best of luck as she’s going to need every bit of it.
Have ticket book. Will travel. Good luck, detective.