Community Corner

Coldwater: Traffic Cop with a Motor for Community Police Work

Friends and colleagues describe Shorewood Police Officer of the Year John Coldwater as a high-energy guy who is driven to succeed on the job and at home with his wife and two boys.

Husband, soccer dad, go-getter.

John Coldwater is so much more than a traffic officer with the Shorewood Police Department. He makes it his job to educate young parents on the importance of properly installing child seats in their vehicles.

He reads to kindergarteners in the Troy School District. He hands out glow-in-the-dark necklaces to young teens on Halloween.

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And he helps shape the image of the local police department by organizing events such as the recent weight loss competition between a handful of Shorewood officers.

Coldwater shed 29 pounds and was crowned “The Biggest Loser.”

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Really, he is a winner in every sense of the word, the definition of what community police work is all about.

“John’s work ethic makes him a terrific cop,” Shorewood detective Jason Henson said. “And his general care for people makes him a great person. That pretty much sums it up.

“He works hard. He doesn’t ask questions. He does what he’s supposed to do. And he does the job very thoroughly.”

Coldwater, 37, was named Shorewood’s Police Officer of the Year in March by the COPS organization and he is featured here today by Shorewood Patch in conjunction with the National Peace Officers Memorial Day celebration in Washington, D.C.

He and his wife, Julie, live in Shorewood with their two boys, Andrew 8, and Austin, 6. The boys play soccer. John plays with them whenever he can—his motor always is running full-speed ahead.

“My boys are in soccer,” Coldwater said. “My wife—she’s a great wife, she puts up with me. I do devote a lot of time to the police department. Sometimes my wife does get a little upset with that. But she understands.

“I’ve always been the type of person—my mom and dad raised me to work hard. And I did get that work ethic from them. I was in construction for 10 years before I joined the force. You had to run, run, run because you wanted to move on to the next job.

“My dad is getting close to 70 years old. He still works full-time. I definitely got my work ethic from him. So, once I came here, it was just more of the same. I like to stay busy.”

All in a Day's Work

Yes, Coldwater hands out traffic tickets. He is a traffic cop, after all.

He also hands out loving advice whenever he works with young parents in the Shorewood Police Department’s child-seat program or men and women from all walks of life in the “Saved by the Belt” program.

“It used to be almost a joke that we’d get people from Iowa or New Orleans—wherever—just to come and put their car seats in here in Shorewood,” Coldwater said. “It seems like there aren’t too many agencies that either have the time to do it or the manpower to do it right.

“But we pretty much have one or two on each shift—car-seat techs. We’ll have walk-ins that come to the police department. It’s a nice benefit for people who don’t know what to do—they’re nervous parents. We walk them through it.

“We check to see if there are any recalls on the seats, especially if it’s an older seat. We check everything to make sure there are no cracks in the plastic—the belts—to make sure they’re routed properly, that there are no twists in them, that there is no fraying of the belts.”

As Shorewood has grown and the police department has responded to more calls, Coldwater stays connected and helps local officers carve out lasting relationships with youngsters in the community, even as he fights crime.

He works with a team of 26 officers, including two in training at the police academy right now, and considers himself lucky to have the backing of his “brothers.”

They’re all dressed in blue. They’re all watching out for each other in a community that has undergone enormous change in the last 15 years.

“It was a different type of atmosphere,” Henson said of when he joined the force in August of 1999. “You had very few calls for service, especially on the midnight shift. You would go multiple shifts without anything.

“But now Shorewood has grown so much, not only economically but with the growth of the houses that patrol guys don’t always have the time to follow-up like they would or they all have the ability to on cases. So, my primary duties are to pick up where they’ve left off.”

Coldwater was nominated for the Police Officer of the Year award by his peers. Diane Chiletz, the department’s records clerk, collects nominations and forwards them to Shorewood Police chief Aaron Klima.

And the final call is made in a vote by the COPS organization.

“Because he is outstanding,” Chiletz said of why Coldwater was voted the winner this year. “He’s just a go-getter, an excellent officer. He’s been working in traffic for almost two years now. And, not only that, he does a lot of extra stuff around here.

“His fellow officers recommended him, not only from the top but one of our newest officers recommended him, too. What does it mean? It means they have respect for him—high respect.”


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