After 24 years as an officer for the Greenfield Police Department and another three as a reserve, Capt. J.D. Fortner resigned from the force in early July. Aside from being the administrative Captain, overseeing investigations and the GPD support staff, Fortner was the GPD’s Information Technology person, responsible for maintaining all of the software, hardware, programs and equipment used daily.
GREENFIELD — From the time he graduated New Palestine High School, J.D. Fortner knew one thing for certain. He wanted to be a police officer.
After three-and-a-half years as a reserve officer with the Greenfield Police Department, Fortner started full time in January of 1998. Before he knew it, he had added another 24 years of full-time service.
Fortner resigned from the GPD force in early July. One of the reasons he stayed as long as he did without ever leaving or wanting to go elsewhere was the people around town.
“We have a lot of community support,” Fortner said. “There are a lot of communities around towns where police officers don’t get that kind of support, but we always did here in Greenfield, and I’ve appreciated that throughout the years.”
Aside from being an administrative Captain, overseeing investigations and the GPD support staff, Fortner was the department’s IT (Information Technology) person. He was responsible for maintaining all of the software, hardware, programs and equipment GPD officers use daily.
Fortner was also the department drone pilot, taking aerial photos of major crash scenes and helping to locate missing people.
“If it involved technology, Capt. Fortner was responsible for it,” deputy chief and public information officer Capt. Chuck McMichael said. “Captain JD Fortner leaves big shoes to fill.”
For Fortner, 52, the decision to step down wasn’t too difficult, he said. After earning a pension with the department, he decided he was still young enough to keep working and has been hired on by officials with Community Health Network. He’s working full time in security at Community North Hospital — a job he started this week.
Chief Brian Hartman shook his head, kind of in disbelief, when asked how hard it was to lose officers with the kind of experience Fortner brought to the table day-in and day-out.
“It is very hard to lose that kind of experience,” Hartman said.
McMichael agreed, saying as a 24-year police officer who worked years on the street and in investigations prior to moving inside to take over as an IT officer in 2014, Fortner has experience from those many years that can not be taught.
“I’m sure he won’t miss essentially being on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” McMichael said.
Fortner said he liked everyone he worked with, so leaving the department was a little bittersweet, but he’s promised to come by and visit GPD often. However, he noted being a police officer for nearly three decades has taken a toll.
“I wouldn’t say I’m relieved, but I’m a little less stressed,” Fortner said with a laugh. “There is a lot of responsibility that came with being there that long and doing the things that I did there, so it’s nice to be relieved from that responsibility.”
Fortner admits working on the investigation side of things was probably his favorite part about being a police officer and recalled one of his more memorable moments on the force.
“We found some credit card skimmers one time in town and I ended up teaming up with the Secret Service. We ended up going to New York City where we did a search warrant on an apartment out there, and that was a lot of fun,” Fortner said.
Lieutenant Daniel Zeabart has now assumed the responsibilities as the GPD IT officer. He has been training with Fortner the past few weeks and brings with him years of experience working on computers, officials said.
