Fort Dodge Police Officer Dylan Samuelson grew up around many members of law enforcement, listening to their stories from their time on the force. By age 10, he decided that he wanted to go into law enforcement, too.

Well, it probably helped that his dad is Sgt. Paul Samuelson.

For the last two years, the two Samuelsons have served together in the Fort Dodge Police Department.

Paul Samuelson has been with the FDPD since 2015. He got his start in law enforcement in 1995 and spent the next 20 years with different agencies in central Iowa, including 10 years with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

When Paul Samuelson started his career in law enforcement, what he thought it was going to look like ended up being much different.

“When I first started off, it was always about being John Wayne and trying to catch those that are a menace to society and throwing them behind bars,” he said. “But as I’ve grown older, it’s more about being kind. It’s more about realizing that everybody is fighting a battle and everybody has troubles and it’s up to us to reach out to those people and to help them.”

In 2018, Dylan Samuelson followed in his father’s footsteps and graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. He worked with the Manson Police Department before joining the FDPD in 2020.

“I’ve always just been trying to help others and be an impact on the community, and hopefully some of the kids that don’t have someone to look up to, they can look up to us,” Dylan Samuelson said.

Though they don’t typically work the same shifts, Paul Samuelson said he still keeps an eye on Dylan’s work.

“Even though he’s my kid, I’m still a lot harder with him,” Paul Samuelson said.

He said he’ll sometimes look back at Dylan’s reports from his patrols to see how he’s doing, but for the most part he leaves the mentoring to Dylan’s supervisors in the department.

“We have to let his supervisors mold him and teach him all the details,” Paul Samuelson said.

Dylan Samuelson said he likes that he has several mentors in uniform to turn to for advice.

“I can obviously ask my supervisors, but I can also ask him for guidance and about what he’s done in the past and what’s worked for him in the past,” Dylan Samuelson said.

The Samuelsons truly enjoy serving the citizens of Fort Dodge.

“We have the ability to impact the lives of others by helping them,” Paul Samuelson said. “Now, sometimes that’s negative — we have to take people to jail or we have to tell them something that they don’t want to hear.”

A couple months ago, Dylan Samuelson was on patrol when he was flagged down by a woman who asked if he was Paul’s son. She then told him that a few years prior, Paul Samuelson had arrested her and she had just gotten out of prison from that arrest. She told him that the arrest was one of the best things that has happened to her.

“She’s trying to change her life around and she’s got a full-time job and she’s learning from her mistakes,” Dylan Samuelson recalled.

At the end of the day, the message is clear.

“If you want to make a change, look around and help people,” Paul Samuelson said.