When Chris Seymour was growing up as a military kid living in Lacey, he would often travel through Yelm or participate in outdoor activities like hunting or shooting guns in the area.
Now, Seymour works in the community he would visit as a kid and has served as a Yelm Police officer since November 2021.
Seymour currently serves as a school resource officer (SRO) and prior to that worked as a field training officer in the agency. His work within the Yelm Police Department, in the community and at the schools led to him being named the department’s officer of the year.
Seymour said within his day-to-day duty, he primarily spends his time at Yelm Middle School, where he routinely checks in with the principals at the school and spends time talking with students. He’s also assigned to Fort Stevens and McKenna elementaries. He visits both schools several times each week.
“It’s a cool honor,” Seymour said of his award on Jan. 22. “It’s nice to be recognized by the supervisors. I think everyone here in the department shows up and does their job. I’m happy to do this job, and very happy to earn this honor. I’m very glad to be here in the Yelm Police Department.”
Seymour said going to the elementary schools is one of his favorite things to do.
“I get to go play wall ball with kids at recess or go into their classrooms and be a part of their education,” he said. “When a teacher asks me for help in math, it’s usually pretty easy, but some of these middle school kids are doing some pretty advanced math.”
If patrol needs help, the SROs will always go out, Seymour said. But since serving as a resource officer is his specialty, most of his time is spent in the schools.
“The young kids love us. Thankfully with our partnership with [Yelm Community Schools], we’re not just there to hammer down on kids,” Seymour said. “The primary function for us is to be a mentor and keep people safe. The safety part is important to me, but the mentoring part is huge. I have kids the same age, middle school and elementary school. I want them to know they can trust us. We’re just there as another person, rather than the enemy. The community is very supportive and Yelm schools [are] specifically. I’ve worked most closely with the principals, but there’s been times the teachers have asked me to come in and give presentations.”
Seymour said this year he coordinated a small-group activity with fifth grade boys including students who might have been bullied to those who did the bullying. He spoke with the students about the effects of bullying and answered any questions they had.
“That was one of my favorite things I’ve been able to do so far,” Seymour added. “It’s nice to have not just our team, but Yelm Community Schools serving as our team, too. I’ve worked with other SROs that don’t necessarily have that same relationship. This relationship, obviously I feel like I’m biased, but we have a great working relationship with not just the admin, but down to the teachers, kids and parents.”
Seymour said he feels a sense of pride working in an area he’d often visit growing up and is happy to serve within the Yelm community.
“I remember Yelm being a one traffic-light town. I used to drive through here to go to the base with my dad. As a kid, I used to go out hunting on Vail. It’s not a totally foreign area to me,” Seymour said. “I chose Yelm after I left the state patrol. I had one of my partners that was on the same crew as me, and he was stationed here in Yelm. I reached out to him, and he said it was a good place to work. I eventually talked to the chief at the time, Todd Stancil, and now Chief Rob Carlson, and we had a good talk.”
According to Seymour, the relationship he and the department has with the community is strong. It is built on simple conversations at events, in different businesses and while officers are on patrol.
“We stop in the same businesses to get food and coffee, little stuff like that within the community. Not speaking for myself, there are lots of people that do live here and have all sorts of ties to the city. We all go to the same businesses to do commerce here, and it’s nice. I don’t think that’s the experience that everybody gets in other departments,” Seymour said. “Everybody has their normal customers, but even dealing with the people we do see a lot, we don’t have a lot of violent crime happening around here. The people we end up dealing with are still pretty respectful. The general public overall is very supportive. It’s a very supporting community. That makes it a lot easier to be a police officer in this current time with legislation and relationships in other cities between police and the public.
“We do the best we can to establish good relationships, too,” Seymour continued. “The general public is great. Everytime we’re out doing the summer festivals or winter events, people are happy to see us. They come up to talk to us and say hi. We’re not just there to be a statue. We’re there to mingle and interact with the community.”
After serving as a state trooper for 12 years, Seymour said it’s nice to make interpersonal connections with members of the community in his role with the Yelm Police Department.
“One of the differences between being a trooper and working in a city is you can see your impact with the people. As a trooper, you can see an impact on the roadway, but those are usually just people passing by, not working there,” Seymour said. “There’s no schools on the freeway. There’s no houses on the freeway. There’s businesses, but you don’t get to know them as well through traffic law enforcement. Coming out to the city, you get to see and work with the people. It’s definitely different. You have a need to be in the community so they can see you.”
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