New officer hits the streets
Staff writer
Hillsboro Police Department has a new full-time officer for the first time since 2016.
Peyton Heidebrecht, a Marion native who started his career in law enforcement in February last year.
He wanted to become an officer after being inspired by Marion’s police force.
“Growing up in Marion, you got to know the officers really well and they got to know you,” he said. “You felt really good when an officer would show up to school just to talk to the kids. That made an impact on me and on all the other kids. I wanted to do that for my home county.”
After finishing training, he worked in Rose Hill. Hillsboro hired him Dec. 27 to cover a patrol vacancy after chief Dan Kinning’s retirement and the promotions of other officers.
Heidebrecht primarily works nights. What the graveyard shift is like as a police officer surprised him.
“You never really know what’s going on behind the scenes at 2 a.m., 3 a.m., when the whole town’s asleep and you’ve got that one person out and about to take those calls just in case.” he said. “It was eye-opening.”
While he has been working crashes, disputes, and other calls like any other officer, during downtime, Hillsboro officers encourage him to interact with and get to know the community.
“It’s more that I’m here to be with the citizens — get to know them, your business owners, all that,” he said. “It’s a lot better. It’s more community policing than actually just being a cop.”
Heidebrecht’s formal introduction will be Feb. 15 at a Hillsboro city council meeting.