Chief: Callahan is pillar of the department

There’s nothing quite like an unexpected message from your boss to make you start thinking – or worrying.

That was the case for Alan Callahan, who was sitting in a training meeting when he received a text from Owatonna Police Chief Jeff Mundale.

“He and I don’t text each other regularly,” Callahan said. “When the boss calls you, or texts you … the wheels start spinning. The worst thing you could do to me is when I’m working, say, ‘hey, stop in, or call me.’”

Wheels still spinning, he left the training and called Mundale, mostly to put his own nerves to rest.

Contrary to any of his worst fears, the news was good – sort of.

Callahan, a patrol officer with the Owatonna Police Department for 11 years, had been nominated as the Police Officer of the Year.

“When he told me, I was, like, ‘why?’ Then I thought, ‘I have to make a speech.’”

So that’s what he was doing May 21 at the VFW, surrounded by family, friends and coworkers after accepting the award during a recognition banquet sponsored by the Moonlighter’s Exchange Club of Owatonna.

This was the 10^th annual event, “and it’s incredible to see how the tradition of excellence continues,” Mundale said in his introduction of Callahan.

“The patrol division is the backbone of our agency,” he told the crowd. “The work is unpredictable and demanding.”

Calling Callahan “a pillar of the department,” Mundale said the officer is counted on for being steady, calm and level-headed.

“As a partner or a citizen, it is easy to see why his peers nominated him,” he continued. “Officer Callahan embraces our police department’s mission of serving as a visible presence in our community through crime prevention, partnerships and the protection of life, property and the Constitutional rights of all.

“He also works toward our core values of fairness, teamwork, integrity and professionalism. We are blessed and honored by the service he provides,” said Mundale, who also recognized and thanked Callahan’s family.

His wife Nikki and three children, Riley, Lucas and Victoria were also in attendance.

Keynote speaker Brad Meier, president and CEO of the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce, outlined the traits of a good police officer.

“The greatest impact of a good police officer is often invisible,” he said. “The public sees the emergencies: The flashing lights, the arrests, the headlines; but what they rarely see are the thousands of moments when a good officer quietly changes the direction of life for another person without recognition, applause – or even awareness.”

A good officer, Meier said, is “the calming voice during a domestic argument that never turns violent, because they arrive with patience instead of ego. They’re the reason a frightened teenager decides not to run away, not to join the wrong crowd, not to give up … The impact is emotional before it’s statistical.

“Good officers restore dignity to people on the worst days of their lives,” Meier continued. “They speak respectfully to someone that everyone else has dismissed, treat victims like human beings instead of case numbers, show restraint when anger would be easier.”

No one writes reports about that, he said.

“No one records the addict who decided to seek help because an officer treated them with compassion instead of contempt,” Meier said. “No spreadsheet tracks the marriages they preserve, the suicides interrupted, the retaliation avoided, the fear reduced, simply because a good officer chose wisdom over force.”

Professionalism, calm and integrity spread, he said.

“From where I look at it, when it’s done best, success looks like nothing happened,” Meier said. “No news story, no viral moment, no public recognition – just families intact, communities stable, children safe, tension defused, lives quietly redirected toward something better.

“Good officers witness humanity at its worst, while still choosing to believe people are worth protecting,” he said. “That kind of service leaves fingerprints everywhere, even when no one notices them.”

Meier thanked Callahan for “being a good officer, even when no one is looking.”

Callahan said he had a few ideas about what to say, “but I kind of just went with being thankful, because I really am. I’m really thankful for the community we have that stands together with the police officers.

“I tell anybody, we get a lot more full waves than the one-finger salutes,” Callahan said. “We have a community that … is very thankful for us for what we do. It’s nice working in a community that supports us, as exemplified by this.”