A 32-year career working at the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department, including a period of time when he had the opportunity to work with his father, leaves former Undersheriff Jim VanDyken calling his experience rewarding.
VanDyken, who has served as the undersheriff since 2016 and has served the County of Kalamazoo at the Sheriff’s Office since 1992, will be retiring at the end of 2024.
VanDyken has requested to return to his original command union, the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Supervisors Association, prior to retirement. He has transferred at his own request back to his original command unit and will serve as chief deputy until his final retirement date.
Former Chief Deputy Michelle Greenlee agreed, at Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller’s request, to transfer into the undersheriff position.
A 1987 graduate of Schoolcraft High School, VanDyken followed the footsteps of his father James F. VanDyken, working his entire career at the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department. He even had the opportunity to work with his father for eight years. His father worked for the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department for nearly 32 years, serving as a patrol deputy, corporal, detective/sergeant, lieutenant of the Criminal Investigation Section, undersheriff and captain chief deputy.
VanDyken said his father was a big reason why he became interested in law enforcement. However when he was 14 years old, he was selected to be a role player in the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office scenario based training program for deputies at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds. The program allowed him to interact with a deputy and go through a number of role playing scenarios like traffic stops, suspicious person, domestic violence, and trouble with subject types of calls. He would then go through a debriefing after each event with the deputy who was supervising.
“At 14, I was thinking, I think I want to, and I can do this job. I was fortunate enough to see the inside track to how deputies worked and how they got trained,” recalled VanDyken.
That experience reinforced his ambitions about going into law enforcement.
He obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice at Grand Valley State University and completed the Police Academy program at Kalamazoo Valley Community College before beginning his career at the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department in 1992. He later completed the FBI Nation Academy program.
During his time at the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department he has served as a corrections deputy, investigator with the KVET drug unit, patrol deputy serving as an evidence technician and field training deputy, detective/sergeant, lieutenant of the Criminal Investigation Section, lieutenant of the Uniform Service Section, captain of Field Operations, undersheriff and he currently serves as captain chief deputy.
While his last official day will be the day after his 33rd anniversary working for the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department in January, he said he plans to continue to work for the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department as a captain chief deputy, overseeing the support division, which performs training and supervising professional staff, a role new Undersheriff Greenlee previously served.
While VanDyken followed in the role as undersheriff his father served in from 1984 to 1986, he recalled initially, there was some uncertainty about making the change.
“He (his father) always told me not to do it. When it came up I was not interested in doing it until the sheriff continued to ask me to consider doing it. When he asked me to do it, I said I would do that for him,” recalled VanDyken, who said his father retired as a captain and chief deputy after he requested to return as a captain dealing with criminal investigations.
“The undersheriff’s role is a difficult position. It’s busy. You are basically in charge of day to day operations overseeing everybody for the sheriff—hiring, discipline, contracts. It’s all administrative and no police work,” explained VanDyken.
The former undersheriff said law enforcement has changed greatly since he started at the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department in 1992. He said in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a huge interest in law enforcement, however now it is the exact opposite.
He recalled the police academy he attended in 1991, there were six people in the academy who never got police jobs because the profession was hard to get into at the time. Now, there is a shortage of people who want to go into law enforcement nationwide.
Aside from some of the challenging cases and frustrations he may have encountered, he said the overall experience has been rewarding.
“It’s always rewarding when you can make somebody feel better. You get to do the fun roles. You go to some schools and you talk to the kids, do a driver’s training class, or you talk to a senior group. Those are always fun things. Working with my dad and being a second generation legacy employee is something I’m very proud of,” said VanDyken.
“My dad was my role model. I always looked up to him, how he carried himself, and some of the stories he told.”
The former undersheriff has worked many cases while serving in other roles at the Sheriff Department and many memorable incidents took place in the area. He said the triple homicide that took place August 30, 2000 in Pavilion Township of Marinus Polderman, Sary Polderman, and their daughter Anna Lewis, sticks out as a memorable case. VanDyken said he was part of a team that processed the house where the murders took place, obtaining evidence. After seven years of investigations, convictions were finally obtained.
“A very, very tough case, personally and professionally to go through. When 90-year-old people are killed in their own home, that’s just unacceptable. It doesn’t leave you,” said VanDyken.
Another memorable case he was involved with locally was an incident involving pigs that were being stolen from a farmer in the Fulton area. VanDyken said he didn’t realize what the value of the pigs were at the time until the farmer told him.
A bank robbery in Climax and an incident where an improvised explosive device (IED) was found at the LeFevre Lake public access in Climax Township are two other memorable cases.
Similar to how he followed his father’s footsteps working in law enforcement, VanDyken is pleased his two sons have chosen a similar career path. Justin currently works for the Portage Police Department and Jason works for the St. Joseph County Sheriff Department.
“I’m lucky to have had a career here,” said VanDyken, of his career working at the Kalamazoo County Sheriff Department.
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