FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS (Nov. 21, 2024) — Department of the Army Police Officer Juan Guzman is retiring next week after 22 years on the DA Police force and 35 years of government service.
Guzman is known for his sense of humor — he had a green pig toy in his patrol car until an ICE comment forced its removal — and his reliability — his co-workers have said that he has to practically be forced to use leave time and that he is who they want by their side when things go badly.
He’s also well known in the community for his devotion to community policing.
“I, myself, like to be in the neighborhood,” Guzman said as he started his 12-hour night patrol shift Nov. 13. “Before I start (patrolling) any area that isn’t populated, I like to go in the populated area first and be a presence. I like to have my window down, even though if it’s rainy or cold — it shows that I’m approachable, and I can hear better.”
His shift involves running radar, security checks and other police work. He said he prefers day shifts so he can interact with people and be a presence at the schools.
What he calls his “Nuyorican” accent hints at his New York and Puerto Rican roots, and that bilingual upbringing has come in handy.
“We get a lot of people who don’t speak English, mainly Spanish, so I get called to the gates. Especially this year, we have a lot coming in,” he said, referring to a large number of Spanish-speaking delivery drivers.
Career journey
Guzman said he dropped out of high school, worked a few menial jobs, then worked at a messenger service in New York City for six months before deciding to join the Army. He entered active duty in 1979, with training and service at Fort Hamilton, New York; Fort Jackson, South Carolina; and Fort Gordon (now Fort Eisenhower), Georgia, as a radio operator. He went to jump school at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore), Georgia, and then was assigned to the signal battalion at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty), North Carolina.
“I was the first paratrooper in the family — I guess that’s why I did it.”
His last jump was in 1982, the year his military occupational specialty changed and he came to work at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, where he trained as a member of the Correctional Emergency Response Team.
“I changed to a combat MOS, and things got messed up,” he said about leaving signal. “So, they put me in the wrong MOS, so I wound up in corrections,” he said, listing firefighter and mortician assistant as his other choices. “Believe me, it was the best thing; I loved it.
Guzman worked at the USDB until he left active duty for the Special Separation Benefit around 1990. He then worked for about a year as a corrections officer at CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), which was a detention center in Lansing, Kansas, then at the state penitentiary in Lansing for about nine years, where he added drug-detection K-9 handler to his skillset. While there, he said he was also learning how to “run with the hounds,” using bloodhounds to search for missing children and escaped convicts.
In 2002, the DA Police force was established at Fort Leavenworth to augment the Military Police. At that time, many service members were deploying, or would soon be deploying, in the War on Terrorism after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the nation. Colleagues whom Guzman had worked with at the USDB and in Lansing alerted him to the opportunity, and he became part of the first graduating class of DA Police officers.
All of the others in that class have retired, or even passed away, except for classmate James Recoy, who is still with the department. Guzman said when he leaves, he’ll be passing his “senior” designation of being the oldest and longest-serving DA Police officer to Recoy.
“It’s been a good ride,” Guzman said of his 35 years of government service. “It’s had its ups and downs, but mostly up.”
Experience and stories
During his years with the DA Police, Guzman’s duties once included conducting commercial vehicle inspections, and he was a member of the now defunct bike patrol, which was a way the DA Police and the 500th Military Police Detachment did community policing for about four years.
“You get to talk to the people, you’re approachable,” he said about the benefits of the bike patrol, citing that interaction and participation at special events, such as the annual Kids’ Fest to teach bicycle safety and distribute helmets, as important highlights of that form of policing. “We did almost everything as the regular patrol, except put them in the basket,” he said, referring to the need to call if transport of someone was required.
During his service here, Guzman has apprehended back-to-back gate runners, which involved a confused person and then a drunk driver, but he is just as likely, if not more likely, to speak of some of the blunders from over the years, such as the time a trick-or-treating “gorilla” stole his bike on Halloween, which was done in jest and made him laugh, or the time he was attacked by someone and needed to use his nightstick, only to have his nightstick go flying out of his hand.
Guzman recently responded to a call “lights and sirens” at accelerated speed and avoiding another car, and he described the unfortunate result of crashing his patrol car.
“If I hit the curb I’m going to flip, so I turned the wheel to the left and I went over the curb on Dickman Avenue… say hi to the tree, missed it, missed it by inches,” he said. “I called over the radio, ‘Hey I crashed,’ ‘Anybody else involved?,’ ‘No, no one is involved; I’m not hurt, just my pride’ … so I turn on the lights and look around, everything is all over the place. I got out of the car, went to walk around the car — I forgot to put it in park, I had to chase it — a little T.J. Hooker (referencing a 1980s TV police drama), jump in. It was one of those days, but I’m glad nobody got hurt. It could have been a lot, lot worse.”
DA Police Lt. David Horvath has been Guzman’s supervisor since April 2023. He said Guzman’s storytelling is one of the things he’ll miss most about him.
“I have a lot of work to do, but (listening to his stories) is worth it,” Horvath said. “He just provides so much to the department.”
Giving his best
Horvath said he thinks Guzman deserves recognition for his years of service to the community for many reasons.
“He’s been giving his best to everyone since he’s been here,” Horvath said. “He is one of the most recognizable police officers on the installation. He helps the new soldiers and officers coming on, as well. There are a lot of people out there who just like to give tickets, but he is also that individual who will listen,” he said, noting that Guzman figures out how to help and does so in a calm, respectful manner.
“We had a call up at the gate one day where there was an individual coming through the gate that didn’t have an ID, no registration, no insurance, and he had marijuana on him,” Horvath said. “(Guzman) went up there with the guards, right before the shift change, and he got into a physical altercation — the guy was fighting him — so he called over the radio (for help), so we all drove lights and sirens over there, got there, and he had already handled the situation.
“The individual was just very angry that he didn’t want to get stopped, he didn’t want to come on the installation, he had no reason to come onto it, he thought it was a tollbooth, and Guzman was talking to him afterwards and asked him (why he did that), all calm like they were friends… He brought him back to the station, got a statement from him, talked to him, and they were like best friends toward the end of the day.
“So, it’s crazy to see that — he can turn from 100 percent greatest person to ‘Hey, I’m a police officer, I’ve got to do my job,’ and at the end of the day still get the result of ‘I’m here to help you, regardless of what you’ve done.’”
DA Police Lt. Monty Hutson, conservation law enforcement officer, served as Guzman’s supervisor from 2018-2021 and worked with him on shifts before that.
“I always liked working with him because, on shift together, if a call comes out, doesn’t matter (how severe), like a dog call, he’s there; if it’s a domestic, he’s there. You can always count on him to be there to help you,” Hutson said. “When it’s bad, you want Guz on your side. He’s good — he knows what he’s doing, and he will take care of what he needs to take care of. He’s the nicest guy you ever met, but when it comes to a situation when he has to put hands on and do what he has to do, he does his job, and you can count on him for that.”
Hutson reiterated that Guzman’s method of operation is helping people.
“Like when he stops somebody, he tries to get the story behind it first, and then he talks to them about it and he tries to figure out what the issues are before he starts writing tickets,” Hutson said. “A lot of times he won’t write the ticket because he understands what’s going on, he tries to help them in that manner, and get it fixed.”
Hutson offered the example of an expired license plate, which is a violation but one that Guzman has been known to help correct, even making sure the renewal sticker gets from the glovebox to the license plate.
“It’s corrective action, with or without the ticket, it’s corrective action where you correct the situation, and the individual understands,” Hutson said. “He could probably write a ticket to someone and get a handshake.”
Horvath said Guzman gives him straightforward and honest feedback and alerts him to issues, as well as tells him to not take the blame for things that aren’t his fault or outside his scope, and that he appreciates having him on his team.
He also said, and Guzman will also admit, that his kryptonite is computers.
“That’s the only thing I struggle with with him,” Horvath said, referring to things such as timecards, e-mail and other computer-related tasks. “The computer is the only thing that can stop him, but he’s great, he will work through it, (even if) it takes him a little bit longer.”
Horvath said Guzman’s contributions are great, so he can deal with the computer issues.
“He helps me in other ways by giving experience to the rest of my team. He’s been here long enough, he’s been through so many chiefs, he’s been through so many supervisors,” Horvath said. “People look up to him. He’s been here the longest, he has a lot of experience.”
Hutson said it is impressive that Guzman has maintained such a good relationship with the community over the years.
“He handles the situation and then gets back to being the people’s guy,” Hutson said. “He understands. It probably helped that when he was in the military he worked corrections for so many years that he dealt with a lot of those guys — they are just people who made mistakes… he sees the good in them and the bad in them.”
Hutson recounted an incident when Guzman detained three people, by himself, when looking into a suspected robbery.
“When I got there, he had two of them on the ground… We got it all sorted out and they were released, and they weren’t happy, but it’s police work — we’re not trying to make people happy, we’re trying to keep the place safe… (We) can’t wait and ask questions and get shot at either,” Hutson said. “That’s why you want him on your team. He might not be the computer guru guy, and paperwork type person, but when stuff goes down, you want Guz there, he can handle it.”
Guzman will be honored by his co-workers, colleagues and friends with a luncheon Nov. 21 at the Frontier Conference Center Solarium, with the meal at noon and ceremony following at about 1 p.m. His last day on the job will be Nov. 25.
| Date Taken: | 11.21.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 01.10.2025 14:29 |
| Story ID: | 488917 |
| Location: | FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 9 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Original member of post’s DA Police force retires — Guzman honored for 22 years with DA, by Prudence Siebert, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
