Tyndall Police Chief
LeWayne Lukkes:
Let’s Talk It Out
Tyndall Police Chief LeWayne Lukkes grew up on a farm in South
Avon, S.D. and though his early adulthood offered opportunities to
work and live overseas, he settled down and found his passion in
another small town about 15 minutes from where he grew up, a town
in which where he has served as a police officer for 34 years.
So what is he passionate about? “Living in a small town and being able
to walk down the street and talk to 97 percent of the people and they
know you.
“You know just about everybody in town. And that can be good and
bad when you deal with them on a different note. When you’ve maybe
sat in church with or talked to in the grocery store more than 20 times,
and you have to arrest them a week down the road because they drank
too much and got stupid or did drugs or whatever. That’s the tough
part.”
In Tyndall, a town with a population a little over a thousand, there
is no police station. There is instead, a church office from which police
run 24 hour dispatch. There’s also a jail — for males only. “In larger
cities you’ve got SWAT team, personnel management team,” reflects
Lukkes. “In a small town you are a jack of all trades. I’ve been on the
ambulance for 37 years, fire department for 37 years.”
As a rule, Lukkes believes he has gotten along well, “I’ve had a few
minor problems over the years, but I usually get along with everybody
— even if you have to arrest them. They might not talk to you for a
year, and then they come around and start talking to you again. I can
understand that.”
His secret is, not surprisingly, as down to earth as the man. “Have
you ever heard of Andy Griffith?” He asks, smiling. Lukkes has always
run his career with TV’s avuncular small town Sheriff Andy Griffith in
14vHISVOICEvJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
mind, “He had common sense… Let’s take a deep breath here, let’s talk
about it.” Unlike Andy’s deputy Barney, Andy would always try to talk
things out letting cooler heads prevail. Chuckling, Lukkes says, “They
call me Andy uptown.”
LeWayne Lukkes graduated from Avon High School in 1974 and
joined the Marines for two years. During that time he travelled to
“Okinawa, Philippines Thailand, Guam, Iwo Jima, Iraq, Germany a
couple of times, I was in Ireland and Hungary and Austria. I’ve got
them all written down. Actually I’ve been to more countries than I
have states!” he laughs.
By 1979 he was doing construction and living in Tyndall, where
he met his wife at the bowling alley. “She was a waitress in there,” he
recalled, “We went bowling and that’s where I met her.”
He also joined the Guard early on, “I joined the National Guard in
Springfield and then we went to Wagner, and then we went to Iraq in
‘04. I got out in ‘05.”
Lukkes didn’t join law enforcement until 1983, “This was a
long time ago, 35 years ago, it was the winter and I used to work
construction. Employment wasn’t much during the winter months.
“I called the sheriff ’s office, Lyle O’Donnell was the sheriff at that
time, and I asked them if they needed any help, I’d be willing. And he
said, ‘Could you start tomorrow?’” One of the deputies had quit, so
Lukkes started a couple of days later.
Over the years he’s found that his experience overseas with the
military has actually helped him in police work. “One of the things that
I got over there is in training: always be aware of your surroundings.
It was the same here. And when I went to Iraq it was even worse. It
helps to be aware of your surroundings and have an escape route if
something stupid happens.”
Though Tyndall has some serious crimes over the years, most of
those seem to involve people passing through. In the 1980s a man
shot and killed his nephew on the golf course in Tyndall. Both were
semi drivers from Texas, just passing through. Last year an Iowa man
intentionally ran over Tyndall Deputy Kelly Young. The deputy is back
to work and recovering nicely, the perpetrator is in Mike Durfee State
Prison about ten miles away in Springfield.
In the event of a serious crime, Tyndall turns things over to the
state, “We’ve had a few murders. When you have a murder here, DCI
(Department of Criminal Investigations) they step in and they take
over. You’re kind of their gofer, you do what they tell you and that’s
alright.” In these cases the state coordinates with federal agencies too.
For the rest, people in the community help each other, “We all kind of
work together because we are a small community. The fire department
helps out. If a kid is missing you call the fire department, you get half
the guys show up on a minute’s notice.”
Everyday events are not nearly so dangerous, “More typical, we have
some drug problems on occasions; we have some drinking problems
on occasions and domestic problems on occasions, and then your
small-town stuff like one neighbor not getting along with another one
because they left a rake on their yard, stuff like that.”
One way to prevent crimes, Lukkes believes, is to reach out to the
children, “I always go to school and talk to little kids. If I can change
one of them from going to the Big House, that’s the prison, that’s why
I stick with it. Once you’re a teenager you’re done, your mind’s set.”
Younger children, first, second or third graders can still be influenced,
says Lukkes, “And maybe down the road one of them would possibly
think, ‘I talked to this old guy years ago,’ which would be me…. If I
could honestly say I helped someone get on the straight and narrow;
that was worth it. I try to walk through the school once a day. Just so
they see me.”
vLUKKES continued on page 19