Captain Danny Story celebrated his 30th anniversary with the Rome Police Department in August.
He’s worked his way through the ranks to the point where he is the head of the Special Operations Unit, formerly known as the Selective Enforcement Unit. It’s a job he loves, and with 30 years on the books, he plans to continue working until it’s not fun anymore.
Captain Story’s shift starts at 6 am, but he generally gets to the new police headquarters in West Rome around 5:15 each morning. “I like to have some flexibility in case somebody is sick and calls in,” Story said. “A phone call can change what you do every day. And we must be very functional.” Following his cup of coffee, Captain Story sits down with the night shift patrol supervisor.
We talked with Captain Story on the first day of school. He made it clear that it was essentially all hands-on deck to enhance safety for children and motorists as well. After the kids were safe at their desks in school, he ran a little traffic and focused on an area that had been the subject of numerous complaints regarding speed. One gentleman who had lived in that area for more than 30 years ran a stop sign and told Story he never even thought about running the stop sign. “It’s the little things that people often get mad about, but it’s the little things that turn into big things,” said Story. By the way, he gave the motorist a warning instead of a ticket, pointing out that sometimes education works wonders. He’s passionate about speed enforcement because people don’t understand the “catastrophic ramifications.” He said speeding laws are not suggestions. “If you can get people to slow down, you’ll decrease accidents and fatalities by at least 50%, that’s proven by statistics, by mathematics, it’s just been proven,” Captain Story said.
One of those phone calls that changed the course of the day came in at mid-morning. A new side-by-side all-terrain vehicle the department had ordered arrived, so Story and several officers had to make arrangements to get radios installed at Coosa Valley Communications and then have the vehicle wrapped to identify it as a police vehicle. Of course, Asst. Chief Rodney Bailey and Chief Denise Downer-McKinney had to take a short ride to check it out before the vehicle was taken over to the various shops.
Right before lunch, Story took some time to review his calendar and realized it was early August and that it was almost time to start planning for the Rome Christmas Parade. “That and the Fourth of July fireworks are two of the biggest special events we do,” Captain Story said.
By then, it was time for lunch, so Captain Story met with a couple of his officers for lunch. “We talked about how their day was going, I just want to be there for them. That’s part of being a supervisor,” he said.
After lunch, it was time to go back to check some of the schools and crossing guards to make sure the first day of school ended as well as it started.
After school was out, it was back to the station for more paperwork, including reviewing any incident reports from the day. Story said he will work the accident if he is near a wreck call. “I feel like you lead from the front and if they (his officers) see if, as a Captain, he’s out there doing the job, it motivates them,” Story said.
Before he headed home for the day, he took a few minutes to check the schedule for the next week and see if there were any special details needed. Since school just started, things like the Bike Ride to School or the Walk to School program need to be monitored. These are little things to most folks, but they are very important to Story and the rest of the Rome Police Department from a community relations standpoint.
He stressed that the Special Operation Unit is just that; there are many little things that people don’t see in the background, but they need to be done right. One of those programs is the Car Seat Safety program that Captain Chris Dehart initiated. “That program has really grown. We take applications, we teach the class, that program has been wonderful,” Captain Story said.
“We want our citizens to be safe 100% of the time and that’s what we strive for,” Captain Story said. “I enjoy my job every day.”
