Porter’s answer was simple — he saw himself leading the FDPD as its chief.

That vision became a reality on March 28, 2017, when the Fort Dodge City Council confirmed his appointment as chief, almost exactly 20 years to the day that Porter graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy.

Now, after six years as the top cop, Porter is ready to hang up his hat and take off his badge. His last day on the job will be Tuesday.

“I’m looking for a different pace,” he said of his retirement. “I want to do something different.”

-Messenger file photo
Fort Dodge Police Chief Roger Porter receives boxes of cookies from the Fort Dodge softball program in December 2022 at Fort Dodge Senior High.

Law enforcement wasn’t Porter’s first career. A native of Fort Dodge, Porter graduated from Fort Dodge Senior High School and went straight to work at United States Gypsum.

After a while at USG, Porter realized he wanted something different for his life and with help from an accommodating supervisor, he enrolled as a non-traditional student at Iowa Central Community College to study criminal justice.

“Law enforcement was something that I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to do,” he said. “Working at USG was great and I had a lot of good experiences out at USG, but even while I was working at USG, always law enforcement was something that I wanted to do.”

After graduating with an associate’s degree from Iowa Central, Porter transferred to the University of Northern Iowa to finish his bachelor’s degree.

“I was a little older and I wanted to get done with UNI as quickly as possible and start my career,” he said. “I had to cram a lot of hours those semesters, and I was working full-time.”

-Messenger file photo
Mia Nuzum, then 6, gets some help from Fort Dodge Police Chief Roger Porter in picking out some Christmas gifts for the Fort Dodge Police Association’s Santa Cops event at Target in December 2022.

The hard work was worth it, he added.

When he returned to Fort Dodge, Porter spent about a year working in security, and then on the jail floor at the Webster County Law Enforcement Center. Eventually, he found himself sitting across the desk from Metzger, interviewing to be a patrol officer for the FDPD.

The chief must have seen something special in the young officer-to-be, because Porter got the job and was sent to the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy to complete his training. According to a story from the March 20, 1997, issue of The Messenger, Porter was 28 years old when he graduated as one of 40 officers in the 155th basic training class at the ILEA.

Porter once again returned to his hometown and hit the streets as a patrol officer for the FDPD. After a couple of years, he was offered a promotion to work as a detective in narcotics, alongside a young Webster County Sheriff’s deputy named Luke Fleener.

“I think I worked pretty hard and it was recognized by the front office,” Porter said. “So I jumped right on that and within three years, I was promoted to the rank of sergeant.”

After about five years on the narcotics beat, Porter moved back to patrol, eventually being promoted to a patrol lieutenant in 2004. Around that time Porter and Fleener started the regional Special Emergency Response Team, which handles things like barricaded suspects and high-risk search warrants.

In 2007, Porter was promoted to captain and placed in charge of the FDPD’s criminal investigation division. He also commanded the SERT around this time.

“There’s a lot of stress, a lot of pressures that are put on you just as a law enforcement officer in general,” he said. “And then, as you climb the ranks, that stress gets to be a little harder and a little bit more.”

Despite the stress, Porter wanted to lead and in 2014, he was promoted to acting assistant chief under the late Chief Kevin Doty. Three years after that, he succeeded Doty as chief.

When Porter took over the department, he wanted to put a focus on community service and showing the community that officers are more than just the badge. He said that when he first became a police officer, most members of the community had never had an interaction with law enforcement before and if they did, it was because they were being arrested or the victim of a crime. Over the years, that began to change, Porter said, and he wanted to continue that under his leadership as well.

“We need the community to solve some crimes,” he said. “We need to have trust in the community, and the communities have to trust in us as law enforcement officers and we have to work together to make our community safer.”

As chief, Porter has kept the department active with community outreach events like National Night Out and fundraisers for Special Olympics Iowa. Until COVID threw a wrench into everything, he also hosted a citizen’s academy for community members to come in and learn about what the department does.

“I’m pretty proud of everybody,” Porter said. “All the officers are great about it — they want to get involved… I think that helps build the bridges and helps knock down some of the walls.”

Officers also log hundreds of hours a month volunteering their time in various ways around the community, he added.

It’s the community service Porter hopes he’s remembered for.

“I think we built a lot of relationships over the last 10 years with a lot of the community,” he said. “And 10 years is a start, you’ve still got a lot of work to do and it’s something that’s got to be maintained, and I think we’re set up pretty well to maintain that going down the road.”

So much has changed in the last three decades, Porter said.

“When I started, we didn’t have cell phones, we didn’t have car computers,” he said. “We had the rotating lights that you had to bang on once in a while to get them to spin.”

As technology has changed, Porter said, the FDPD has adapted pretty well.

“I was instrumental in getting body cameras for everybody,” he said. “Car cameras, I was instrumental in getting those when they first came out… I think we’re probably one of the better equipped departments around here with all the technology that’s been going on.”

Shortly after joining the FDPD, Porter married his wife, Amy, and the couple started their family. Together, they’ve raised three children — two of whom are in college and one who is in high school.

Porter said he’s grateful for the support and understanding from his family over the years. A career in law enforcement can be hard on the officer’s family.

“Just like every officer, I’ve missed a lot of holidays, a lot of birthdays,” Porter said.

He said often when he was working in investigations, he’d be home with his family for a holiday or some other special event and he’d get called out to cover a crime scene.

“Not one time did [Amy] ever bat an eye or say ‘I want you to stay home’ or get upset because I had to leave her or my family,” Porter said. “My wife was very supportive all the way through the last 27 years.”

Porter recalled a Mother’s Day where he and his kids had planned a special day to celebrate Amy, but then his phone rang and he was gone for two days.

“There was no Mother’s Day that year for her, but she understood,” he said. “She supported that and held onto that all the way through the 27 years we’ve been doing this together.”

After nearly 27 years in uniform, Porter has plenty of memories — some good, and some bad. He was in Rockwell City with the SERT when Rockwell City Police Officer Jamie Buenting was killed during a standoff with a suspect on Sept. 13, 2013.

Over the years, Porter racked up too many arrests to count and though he doesn’t necessarily remember them all, a few do stick out to him because of the outcome.

“I’ve had on at least three occasions that come to mind, people that I’ve arrested mostly when I worked in narcotics, and they got sent to prison and then came back and thanked me a couple years later because now they’re clean,” he said.

Looking back, Porter recalls a humorous incident he had while on duty.

Officers were receiving a number of calls from residents to come take care of a bat loose in their home, so for a while all officers carried around a bat kit — a tennis racket, a garbage bag and gloves.

“I got a bat one night,” he said. “We didn’t kill them, we’d stun them and then pick them up in the sack and then we’d take them outside and release them and throw everything in the trunk.”

But that night, after tossing the kit back in the trunk of his patrol vehicle, Porter drove off as the bat — which had clung to the garbage bag he had just tossed in the trunk — found its way into the cab of the vehicle.

“I had an [Iowa State Patrol] trooper that was behind me and all of a sudden, the bat got through the trunk and into the car and the damn thing’s flying all over the place as I’m going down the road, swerving,” Porter said. “The trooper gets out because he sees me swerving and is wondering what the hell’s going on. I jump out screaming like a little girl and then he sees that bat in the back window.”

Porter said he’s going to miss the camaraderie in the department when he retires.

“We’ve got a great department … it’s kind of like a big family,” he said. “So I’m going to miss that on a day to day basis.”

What’s next for Porter?

Well, he’s not revealing much of his plans but for now, he’s going to be spending some time with his family and volunteering as a middle school softball umpire and as a volunteer coach with the FDSH Softball team.

“I enjoy doing that and staying involved in that type of stuff,” he said.

A Dodger through and through, Porter doesn’t plan to leave his hometown anytime soon — or maybe ever.

“This is my home, I’ve grown up here,” he said. “We have our issues just like every other community has their issues, but this is where my family’s from and I can’t really see myself anywhere else. I’m not going anywhere.”

On March 24, Fort Dodge City Manager announced Capt. Dennis Quinn as Porter’s successor. The appointment was then confirmed by the City Council the following Monday. Quinn will assume the chief role on Wednesday.

“The department, the city and the citizens are in great hands with the officers that we have in this department,” Porter said. “Every officer in this department is doing his job for the right reasons. It’s just a great group of men and women that are coming up through the ranks. I just can’t be more proud of how much work and dedication that they put into this department, into this city.”