MPD Officer Stephen Pyle to Retire after 21 Years of Service Share

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Mar­i­on Police Offi­cer Stephen Pyle is retir­ing after hav­ing served 21 years with the department.

On July 26^th, 1999, the Mar­i­on native and 5^th-gen­er­a­tion grain farmer began a career with the Mar­i­on Police Depart­ment with high ambi­tion to serve his com­mu­ni­ty. He excelled in firearms, and became cer­ti­fied through the Indi­ana Law Enforce­ment Acad­e­my (ILEA) as a Firearms Instruc­tor for pis­tol, shot­gun, patrol rifle, and M14. In addi­tion to stand­ing out as a Firearms Instruc­tor in var­i­ous weapons, Pyle is also ILEA sniper-qual­i­fied, and an ILEA Advanced Emer­gency Vehi­cle Oper­a­tions (EVO) Instructor.

Pyle served on the Spe­cial Weapons & Tac­tics (SWAT) Team from 2004 to present, near­ly con­sec­u­tive­ly. He was active in the Com­mu­ni­ty Ini­tia­tive Resource Team (CIRT) from 2011 – 2016, hav­ing par­tic­i­pat­ed in parades, Youth Acad­e­my, Cit­i­zens Acad­e­my, and much more. Begin­ning in 2014, Pyle was one of a small group that imple­ment­ed and con­duct­ed active shoot­er pre­pared­ness train­ing under the ALICE (Alert, Lock­down, Inform, Counter, Evac­u­ate) method for Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty Schools and sev­er­al local small businesses.

Pyle said he’s look­ing for­ward to the next chal­lenge, while focus­ing on his fam­i­ly. ​“This job is a young man’s game. It takes a toll on you phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly. My fam­i­ly has tak­en 2^nd fid­dle, and now it’s time for them to take cen­ter stage and be the focus from now on,” expressed Pyle.

Of all facets of his law enforce­ment career, Pyle said instruct­ing was his great­est ful­fill­ment. ​“I instruct­ed with the mind­set that you want the next gen­er­a­tion to be bet­ter than your­self. I don’t like ​‘boxed’ train­ing, so I have always thought out­side my com­fort zone and taught oth­ers to do the same, because you nev­er know what’s going to hap­pen on the street.”

Pyle said he will remain in Mar­i­on, will con­tin­ue farm­ing, and will be avail­able as a resource to any­one local­ly, coun­ty­wide, or statewide.

Chief Angela Haley expressed, ​“Steve will be missed. Some of my fond­est mem­o­ries over the years involve calls Steve and I were on togeth­er. He loves a good laugh regard­less of whether it is at his expense or a friend’s. He’s a tough guy with a soft spot for kids.”