From uncertainty to leadership: Jackson PD Lt. Jason Wilhelm's journey in law enforcement

Following his high school graduation in 2000, Scott City native Jason Wilhelm wasn’t sure where the future would lead him.

Law enforcement was on Wilhelm’s radar, but he ultimately decided to “put it on the back burner” and attend college. During his freshman orientation at Southeast Missouri State University, Wilhelm, who is now a patrol lieutenant with the Jackson Police Department, learned about the university’s criminal justice program.

“I took those courses, and the more I took, the more it interested me,” Wilhelm said. “It kind of re-sparked that fire of wanting to help people.”

Wilhelm ultimately decided to forego a college degree at the time — later earning a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice administration from Columbia College in 2018 — and enrolled in SEMO’s Law Enforcement Academy, which he currently serves as a part-time instructor in addition to his police duties. Wilhelm said he decided to attend the academy because he was ready to get to work.

“It was just getting to it and getting it going because I was already, at that point, 25 years old,” Wilhelm said. “I'd had a little bit of life experience, so I wanted to go ahead and get that ball rolling.”

Wilhelm began his career with the Scott City Police Department where he served in multiple capacities for nearly seven years before accepting a position with Jackson PD. Throughout his 16-year career, he has served in several roles, including as a communications officer, patrol officer, traffic enforcement officer, field training officer, patrol corporal, detective, patrol sergeant and patrol lieutenant. He is also certified as a crime scene investigator, standard field sobriety test instructor, drug recognition expert and racial profiling instructor, and has received his Type II permit for breath instruments.

Wilhelm attributed his growth to the wisdom he has gained during his career.

“Whenever I first started out, I was that young guy who thought, ‘Nothing's going to hurt me. I'm invincible and (ready to) take on the world,’” Wilhelm said. “But now that I've gotten older, I've been doing this a long time and I've seen some things.

“Now, I'm more or less trying to impart my years of wisdom and any mistakes that I've made, which, in this job, yes, we're going to make mistakes. As long as they're not career-ending mistakes then it's a learning experience. I've made my own mistakes, and I try to pass those down to younger officers and anybody that's just starting out in it. I’m trying to help them not repeat anything that I did, while also giving them anything I did good at, giving them that benefit as well.”

Working for Jackson PD has been a positive experience for Wilhelm, who credited the community as “very pro-law enforcement” and said the department has “pretty good backing” from residents.

“It makes the job easier,” Wilhelm said. “It makes our interactions with our citizens easier because I know there are some departments and larger departments that every time they interact with somebody they might have to always be on edge.

“‘Is this person gonna hurt me? Is this person going to be insulting me? Am I going to have to always be on my guard?’ While that is true with us as well, it's not like that in every encounter. We know with certain people, yeah, we might have to be on our guard a little bit more. But the majority of our citizen interactions are going to be positive interactions.”

Despite working a stressful job that’s often unpredictable and can be dangerous, Wilhelm emphasized his ability to remain composed during situations, joking that he is often more nervous handling some of the non-essential tasks of the job.

“When you've been in this job long enough, you kind of know what to expect so it's not as bad,” Wilhelm said. “You're not just being thrown into the deep end of the pool and being told to swim.

“A lot of it is the little things are more stressful than others. I could walk into a major catastrophe, and I'll be just fine. But then you come over and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to have you do an interview today at 2', and it’s like, ‘What?’ That'd be a little bit more stressful than most things.”