Dep. Chf. Dorsey Retires after 35 Yrs., Ofc. Kilgore Becomes Civilian Employee after 20 Yrs. (30 Total with City) Share

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35-year police vet­er­an, Dep. Chf. Stephen Dorsey, is retir­ing from the Mar­i­on Police Dept. as the new year begins. Dorsey fol­lowed in his father’s foot­steps to become a police offi­cer in 1986. He worked a cou­ple years on patrol, then joined the Joint Effort Against Nar­cotics (JEAN) Team, one of four men instru­men­tal in the his­toric drug raid to bat­tle crack-cocaine in cen­tral Mar­i­on. While at MPD and under the JEAN Team, he was recruit­ed by the Indi­anapo­lis Metro Police Dept. (IMPD) and even worked numer­ous cas­es for the FBI. Mean­while, Dorsey worked up to Sergeant, then Detec­tive work­ing about 13 years in Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tion. He then became Lt. in Patrol tak­ing over sex offend­er checks set­ting up every patrol under that pro­gram, then was pro­mot­ed to Cap­tain, then Deputy Chief. Dorsey served many years as the Pub­lic Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer for MPD. He simul­ta­ne­ous­ly serves as the Grant Coun­ty Coroner.

While Dorsey served in var­i­ous lead­er­ship roles, he explained the key is to sim­ply do an out­stand­ing job, com­mu­ni­cate well, and do the right thing. The high­light of his career he explained was work­ing with the JEAN Team solv­ing drug cas­es and as a detec­tive solv­ing homicides. 

Although he will con­tin­ue to serve his oth­er role as Coro­ner, Dorsey looks for­ward to not hav­ing two full-time jobs, allow­ing him to relax and be able to do more leisure activ­i­ties such as trav­el­ing. He added that the past two years with the pan­dem­ic result­ed in many more deaths, and two full-time jobs were becom­ing challenging.

Police Chief Angela Haley described Dorsey as, ​“One of the best men I have had the plea­sure of work­ing with and a good friend. His coun­sel has been invalu­able. There is a qui­et strength about him, and I’ll miss see­ing him every day.”

(Left to Right: Dorsey, Haley, Kilgore)

Anoth­er MPD vet­er­an of near­ly 20 years is also retir­ing his police badge to become a civil­ian employ­ee. 1^st Class Offi­cer Mark Kil­go­re first began his career with the City­wide Main­te­nance Dept. 10 years before becom­ing a police offi­cer in 2001. Kil­go­re was encour­aged by three vet­er­an offi­cers and decid­ed to take on the chal­lenge. Kil­go­re expressed pas­sion for work­ing patrol. ​“Patrol is the back­bone of any police depart­ment. With­out it, it doesn’t work. I thrived on the front lines with the peo­ple.” Kil­go­re served on the Acci­dent Recon­struc­tion Team for about 15 years and as a Field Train­ing Offi­cer for about 11. Since Feb­ru­ary 2020, he has been work­ing as the Evi­dence Tech­ni­cian, and will con­tin­ue to serve in that capac­i­ty as a civil­ian employee.

Haley expressed, ​“Mark is a kind man with a great sense of humor. Mark has the abil­i­ty to put peo­ple at ease, and I always enjoyed work­ing with Mark when we were in the Patrol Divi­sion togeth­er. He is retir­ing as a police offi­cer, but we are lucky to have him con­tin­ue work­ing with us as a Civil­ian employee.”

May­or Jess Alum­baugh stat­ed, ​“Stephen Dorsey and Mark Kil­go­re exem­pli­fy what it means to be true pub­lic ser­vants. Both of these men have ded­i­cat­ed their lives to serv­ing and pro­tect­ing the cit­i­zens of Mar­i­on with dig­ni­ty and com­pas­sion. I tru­ly appre­ci­ate their tire­less efforts and the lega­cy they leave with the Mar­i­on Police Department.”