MARSHFIELD, WI (OnFocus) – After just over a year since former Marshfield Police Chief Rick Gramza’s resignation, the City of Marshfield has announced 24-year Marshfield Police Department veteran Jody Geurink will be the newest chief of police.
After a short introduction, City Clerk Deb Hall issued the oath of office and Geurink’s wife, Christine pinned his chief’s badge on his uniform.
Geurink said he is thankful for the opportunity and hopes to make people who helped get him to this position proud.
“I need to start out by saying how honored I am and thankful that the police and fire commission has entrusted me to lead this department of great people,” Geurink said. “It means a lot to me and I’m going to do everything I can to prove you guys right.”
Geurink thanked his family, fellow officers at the Marshfield Police Department, Interim Police Chief Pat Zeps and many others for their contributions they made in shaping his career.
He described the 10 weeks of training at the FBI Academy he went through to help prepare him for this position as a “struggle.” Geurink said that as he was going through training, he reflected on how departments across the U.S. are going through similar challenges.
He mentioned the challenges that the department has faced over the last few years and said that it’s going to take a departmental effort to get the it back on track.
“We still have difficult challenges that we need to overcome,” Geurink said. “I’m not naive enough to think that just a selection of a new chief is going to fix all of those issues. There’s no one person that can run the police department we need to work as a team and work together to move forward.”
A Wausau area native that originally aspired to be a truck driver like his father, Geurink was inspired to become a police officer by his uncle.
“I had an uncle that was a deputy up in Marathon County. I always thought it was cool when he was doing that stuff,” he said in a 2018 interview with OnFocus. “When I got to be about a junior in high school, I really became interested in it.”
Pat Zeps served as the Interim Police Chief during Gramza’s absence and will assumedly return to his prior position as Deputy Police Chief.
Geurink closed his introduction by saying he hopes to build bridges in his tenure as chief.
“If we can focus on what’s best for the community, I think that we can build bridges for those that we serve,” Geurink said. “At the same time, we can build bridges for all of us that are working behind the scenes to make things happen.”
We welcome your stories! Contact us at [email protected]!
