| Park ranger enjoys variety of duties |
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| Written by PETER KUEBECK Sentinel Staff Writer | ||
| Saturday, 02 June 2012 07:58 | ||
Shiffler was born and raised on the east side of Toledo, graduating from Waite High School. Despite his current career, law enforcement was not originally on his radar. "I initially entered college with the intent of becoming a music major," he said. "And I went to Bowling Green for two years and realized that music ed wasn't my thing, it wasn't as fun as I thought it'd be, I guess." After that realization, Shiffler began working at other jobs, including teaching driver's education and working in retail security, "and sort of fell into the opportunity to apply to Lucas County for their (sheriff's) auxiliary and kind of took off from there." That was in 1987. He remained with the auxiliary for three years before joining the North Baltimore police force from 1990 to 1997, "when I came down here to the parks." "You might say I was ready for a change of pace from the PD, and the opportunity arose to apply for the position here." The transition from working in the more urbanized policing environment of North Baltimore to the fields and woods of the Park District proved challenging for Shiffler - he had to learn a whole new set of rules and regulations. "We're the police department of the Parks District," he said. "There was a pretty steep learning curve trying to get caught up on all of the natural resource-kind of things." "We've got a good mix internally on our own staff," he said. "Some of the rangers come from a strictly law enforcement background, such as myself," while others have a very strong natural resources background. "So I get the opportunity to learn from them as well as going to training and doing education, continuing education, learning about the whole natural resource aspect." "Every day is something different," he said of why he enjoys being a ranger. "We have the opportunity to interact with the public, we could be assisting other departments within the park district. We've had the opportunity to get involved with other things, building playgrounds, working on that, getting the opportunity to work on prescribed burns when the park district does that." There are also challenges, he said. Since his promotion to sergeant, "I've been given the opportunity to become involved in some administrative things that I may not have done before," including managing the park district's vehicular fleet and working as a field training officer, showing new rangers the ropes. "That can be quite challenging. We work pretty much by ourselves the majority of the time. So it's always challenging as a training officer when I have a new person with me to let them do things. Because sometimes it takes them a lot longer to do something in the same time that I could do it in." "We have a lot of interaction with the public. It's a little bit different. When you're the only officer there (at a park), that does take some getting used to. You're used to having other officers right with you, and that's not always the case with us. Sometimes we have to deal with situations on our own." Shiffler is also imparting his experience to a new generation - he's been an instructor at the police academy at Owens Community College for the past 12 years. "I get to do that, and that's always challenging, getting to work with younger people. That helps me keep a little more current on things, too." So, after 15 years with the park district, does Shiffler have a favorite park? "Every park has its own unique attraction," he said. "I'd guess I'd have to say Buttonwood Park." He noted that during the walleye and white bass runs each year, he's grown to know many of the fishermen who frequent the banks at Buttonwood. "They kind of become regulars," he said. "We get to kind of catch up with each other. Some of these guys, I don't see them but once a year." "It's kind of like you get to see an old friend every year." |
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