New DPS Commander Looks Back On 30-Year Career In Law Enforcement

By Linda Kor
   Anyone involved with law enforcement will tell you that there are people who love to be cops and there are people born to be cops. Commander Larry Parks of the Arizona Department of Public Safety is definitely the latter. Coming up on his 30th year as a law enforcement officer, Parks is now the commander of District 3, which encompasses Navajo, Apache and a portion of Coconino counties.
   Parks began his law enforcement career at 20 years of age while living in his hometown of Coolidge. From there he went to work in Yuma, then went back to Coolidge before discovering the beautiful White Mountains and making his home in Round Valley. Although stationed all across the state, Parks and his wife Beverly have kept their home in Round Valley where they raised they’re two children, with Beverly working as a probation officer for Apache County.
   Parks has worked in many areas and in many capacities, but some of his most memorable moments come from the work he did with the gang task force also known as GITEM (Gang Intelligence Team En-forcement Mission).
   “GITEM was a trip,” stated Parks. “We worked in areas where we were needed the most, and at that time it was Holbrook and Winslow, where there was a higher concentration of street gangs,” explained Parks. “Most of the time it was just wayward youth getting into drugs, alcohol and tagging, so a lot of it was intelligence gathering.”
   The team also offered assistance to local agencies when there were big gatherings, or when there were bar or family fights.
   “Sometimes our presence would double their police force,” recalled Parks. “In those situations you need a strong law enforcement presence.”
   On the drug task force Parks experienced one of the most exciting events of his career.
   “DPS had pulled over a vehicle between Winslow and Holbrook and discovered 14 kilos of cocaine using a DPS K-9. The subject involved was just transporting the drugs, and agreed to assist us in catching the dealer,” stated Parks.
   The delivery point was in Chicago’s Cook County, so Parks contacted the U.S. Drug Enforcement Ad-ministration and in a multi-agency operation, proceeded to take down a Chicago drug dealer.
   The operation was set so that the suspect, along with two officers, drove to the meeting in Chicago while the actual drugs were transported via airplane along with Parks.
   “I was a little lost off of my turf because Chicago is not an area I’m familiar with, but it was very excit-ing,” recalled Parks. “Since I’m an officer of the state I had to be sworn in as a federal officer for the dura-tion of the operation in order to transport the drugs across state lines.”
   The operation was successful, resulting in the arrest of three men.
   Other experiences that Parks had were more difficult, such as the copper mine strike at the Greenlee County Morenci Mine in 1982.
   “The copper mine strike was the most difficult assignment I’ve had,” recalled Parks. “There was a 1 to 10 ratio of officers to civilians and you had three generations of workers on strike.”
   The strike began when union officials and Phelps Dodge failed to come to a wage agreement for the mineworkers. The result put 1,000 strikers and their supporters on the line at Morenci in a strike that lasted about six months.
   “You had a lot of these people at odds with each other and with police officers they grew up with trying to enforce laws,” stated Parks.
   “When I was called in I would rotate in one week on, one week off and I would live in a tent at the site. There were a lot of threats, windows being broken, fights,” recalled Parks. “We would have to deploy gas just to let the workers access the mine. Strikers would picket and smash cars, yelling at what they called scabs (workers not part of the union). The focus we tried to keep was to just keep the peace.”
   After six months’ time military vehicles, tanks, helicopters, 426 state troopers and 325 National Guard members arrived in Clifton and Morenci as part of Operation Copper Nugget to break the strike.
   When asked how he felt about working 30 years in law enforcement, Parks response was that it’s a little different now that he’s behind a desk.
   “I’m not on a bike or working in a ditch along the roadway. Now I get to manage the officers, organize the budget and deal with citizens complaints, and, hopefully, I’ve gained some good judgment over the years in order to handle that,” he stated. “I’ve been involved twice with gun takeaways, and spent three years working with gang members and their associates, so I’m ready to take on an administrative position. Besides, you know, it looks good when you apply for a loan,” stated Parks with a grin.
   Parks’ commitment to his job and his modesty regarding his accomplishments have earned him the re-spect of his officers and other agencies.
   In April, Parks will be attending the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., for a 10-week management level training course.
   “This is the same academy that the FBI agents attend. I competed for this position for the past one and a half years before I was selected by my commander,” explained Parks.
   The new commander is also excited to be working with Navajo County Sheriff K.C. Clark, with whom he has shared many law enforcement experiences, as well as Apache County Sheriff Joseph Dedman, who was in his squad when Parks first went through the academy.
   According to Parks, his career is always presenting something new and challenging.
   “It can be an interesting ride and I still have a lot to learn, especially being new to this area again. I will be dealing with the administration and politics of two different counties and three separate Indian reserva-tions, and aim to co-exist with the same goal of keeping the peace.”