Curran promoted to captain

PERKINS TWP. — A man who greatly values community received the people's approval for his highest career achievement to date. A standing-room-only crowd, about 100 people in total, attended a promotion ceremony for Martin "Marty" Curran on Tuesday at Perkins Township Hall. "I want to thank everyone for coming," a choked-up Curran said when addressing family — including his wife, Andrea, and their daughters, Ayla and Reece — friends, colleagues and other supporters who attended the ceremony. "I'm a firm believer that hard work pays off, and I appreciate the support," said Curran, who now serves as a captain, elevated from an officer. "I wouldn't be in this position without a lot of people in this room. Thank you everybody." By a unanimous 3-0 vote, Perkins Township trustees approved the measure. "You have done a lot of great things with the police department," Ferrell said. Earlier this year, upon becoming the department's top cop, Perkins police Chief Jeff Musser made some adjustments to his agency's organizational chart. This mainly involves creating a second-in-command position, now belonging to Curran, who'll oversee road patrols among other obligations. Musser named Curran for the position, in part, due to the leadership qualities he's exhibited. For instance, Curran created Perkins' K-9 program in 2011, which helps foster goodwill between locals and first responders. Trained dogs often bridge communication gaps between officers and others, and K-9 officers show up to various community functions. A year later, in 2012, Curran led efforts in organizing Perkins' now-annual food and toy drives, occurring around Christmastime. His stellar police work also earned him previous promotions to sergeant in 2016 and detective bureau supervisor in 2020. "Capt. Curran is a community-oriented and a very dedicated officer," Musser said. "The most important leadership skill Capt. Curran possesses is his high character both as an officer and as an individual." Curran takes great pride in caring for those who call the local area home. "I really appreciate the Perkins Township community," he said. "They have always supported our police department. It's great being able to drive around neighborhoods, and people stop you to talk to you. I have a lot of people who stop me to thank me for my service." Curran values the "great relationships with citizens and business owners" he's established as an officer. "This is something I want to continue to do and expand upon," Curran said. "I want people to know who I am and if they need something, they can contact me to assist them." He continued: "Taking this position gives me the ability to work closer with our community and make changes within our department to better serve our community." Respecting past leaders Curran credits past leaders of the police department — former chiefs Ken Klamar, Robb Parthemore, Vince Donald, current chief Musser and former township Lt. Chris Hilton, who's now the Sandusky County sheriff — for preparing him for this position. Among other respected colleagues past and present, "Those people mentored, encouraged and coached me during my career," Curran said. "I see this position as an opportunity to apply what I've learned to Perkins Township. We have a very young department, and I look forward to mentoring these officers both personally and professionally." Curran expressed his gratitude to continue protecting and serving Perkins Township "I feel being a police officer is the best job in the world," Curran said. He expanded upon his emphatic statement. "I get to interact with so many different people in so many different ways," he added. "I get a lot of fulfillment out of helping people and just talking with people. I really enjoy talking to the general public and educating them on what I do day to day. A lot of people are surprised by what actually goes on." Curran hopes he can remain a police officer for years to come. "Sure, there are bad days in the profession, but every profession has bad days. The good days have definitely outweighed the bad days." Context into Curran's captaincy Curran listed three goals he'd like to achieve in his new position: 1. Ensuring officers create short- and long-term goals I will work with each officer individually to obtain their goals. Setting goals is important for personal and professional development. We don't want officers to just write tickets their whole career. We want officers to grow within this profession and become leaders. Overall, this will benefit our community by having more rounded officers and preparing officers to fill the ranks of this department. 2. Getting new officers more involved in community matters Our community is the backbone of this department. Without them, we will never succeed. I have found people, in general, want to know about our officers and see them face to face, not just know them by name. This also helps with building relationships between our citizens and our officers. This benefits our community by setting up different avenues of communication and building trust. 3. Creating and implementing a wellness program Although this is one of Chief Musser's goals, it is something I strongly believe in. This would give us healthier officers mentally, physically and financially. Overall, this would create a better culture within our department that would carry on for years after I have retired. This would also reduce the use of sick time days and will help with recruitment and retention of officers. Chief Musser and I sincerely care about our officers and their health. We want to make sure they have long and healthy careers.