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The Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol, Col. John Bolduc retires May 4 after leading the patrol for eight years, ending a 38-year career in law enforcement. Nebraska Public Media's Dale Johnson sat down with Bolduc to first find out what led him into law enforcement.
John Bolduc: I always say tongue in cheek I wasn't smart enough to be a doctor, but I always enjoyed working with people. I taught swimming, I was a lifeguard, I worked for the park and rec department in my hometown, and I just was drawn to a job where you're working with people solving problems. So it felt like a good fit. And once I went to college, got my degree in criminal justice, did an internship with the sheriff's office, I knew that this was a career for me.
Dale Johnson: Started in 1986 as a police officer in Minnesota, Maple Grove. Went on to Mora, Brainerd, became a police chief somewhere in that transition. And then ultimately, you were in San Diego as a police chief.
Bolduc: Several years there on the west coast, and we decided that after that amount of time, the kids had settled back here in the Midwest, in Kansas City and Minneapolis, and we decided to come back closer to them, and that's what drew us to the Midwest, and ultimately to Nebraska.
Johnson: San Diego is where Governor Ricketts found you and brought you to Nebraska In October, I believe it was. You became the 18th superintendent for the NSP when it wasn't in good shape. Admittedly, it was going through some turmoil. Former superintendent Brad Rice had been fired. Other officials resigned, retired or were fired. I was reading reports of excessive use of force, interference in internal investigations, charges of discrimination, sexually invasive exams of females. Colonel, why step into a situation like that?
Bolduc: I talked to the very few people that I actually knew in Nebraska, and their impression was the State Patrol is a great organization. There's a few people who made some bad decisions, and it kind of snowballed, and the problems weren't handled the best. And so it again, in some respects, people even had the impression that things were covered up. And after I looked at all of that, when I got here, nothing was covered up. They just weren't handled right. And ultimately, those were things that we were able to get back on track. Some folks were disciplined. Some folks lost their jobs because they betrayed the public trust, and that was the right thing to do, and ultimately, we got the organization and all of our troopers and investigators and professional staff on the same page. We're here to serve Nebraska. We're here to provide excellent law enforcement service. We do make mistakes, and we've had some high-profile incidents since I've been here. You know, one that gets bought up on occasion is the, you know, we had one of our own evidence technicians arrested and is now serving 20 years in federal prison. Wow, that's an incredible human error, and that had far reaching impacts, but we had to take a good look at are our systems right? Did we fail by not having everything in order? And ultimately, it came down to a human failure. But certainly we've, we've learned from that, and we've made some changes that can help mitigate that in the future. But I think the public deserves to have the answers up front when something like that happens. And I think we did that all the metrics that we set out to accomplish, we hit within the first year in terms of productivity and professionalism and accountability. And sometimes, when you have a culture of accountability, not everybody likes that. You make a few friends, you make a few enemies, but that's the nature of the job. And I would say that we got a little bit off mission. In fact, there were troopers who were even dissuaded from pursuing interdiction stops and things like that. And we just said, look, let's get back to our core mission, traffic safety, arresting bad guys and providing great public service, whatever that looks like because, you know, most law enforcement agencies, two thirds of our calls are not dealing with crime. They're dealing with, you know, somebody needs help. Somebody needs assistance, whether it be changing a tire, they're lost, they're some service level, right? So we need to get back to focusing on that and providing great service, and then highlighting that great service for the state to see.
Johnson: Describe the trajectory for the State Patrol as you wind down your career there.
Bolduc: I would say that our staff competence as is at an all-time high. We have great troopers, investigators, professional staff really hitting their stride. They're not going to miss a beat with my retirement. They going to continue doing, you know, great work, because it's not about me, it's about them doing the work every single day in all kinds of conditions. I mean, think about the tragedy we just experienced with Trooper Kyle McAcy losing his life. Every single day these troopers are out there in, you know, ridiculous weather conditions, you know as Nebraska has, just doing the work and providing that great service. So that's the focus. That's what we want the public to see.
Johnson: Enjoy retirement, sir. Thank you.
Bolduc: Thank you, Dale.
Johnson: After 38 years in law enforcement, Nebraska State Patrol Colonel John Buldoc is retiring the first part of May. I'm Dale Johnson. Thanks for listening to us on Nebraska Public Media.