Big shoes to fill: The former top cop in Mountain Brook reflects on a lifetime of service and the changing role of police

When retiring Mountain Brook Police Chief Ted Cook jumped in his waders for a fishing trip to north Alabama, he had already left behind another pretty big pair of boots for his successor to fill in the city he protected for a decade.

“Chief Cook demanded excellence from each and every person under his command,” said Officer George French, spokesman for the Mountain Brook Police Department. “Chief Cook left the agency leaps and bounds ahead of where he found it just 10 years ago.”

Cook’s list of accolades includes serving as the District 6 representative on the executive board of Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police from 2008-14. The following year, he was elected sergeant at arms of the AACOP board. And since 2013, Cook has served as a member of the Alabama Sentencing Commission, the state body charged with maintaining “effective, fair and efficient sentencing” in the state prisons, while avoiding “unwarranted disparity” in how prisoners are sentenced, as noted on the ASC website.

But his career goes back years before Mountain Brook. “Immediately prior to coming to Mountain Brook, he was the chief of police at the Leeds Police Department,” the Mountain Brook city website reads. “Prior to Leeds, he worked more than 20 years with the Birmingham Police Department. Chief Cook has extensive experience in police administration, SWAT operations, patrol and worked on a felony task force in Birmingham.”

French noted that Cook also means a lot to him, personally. “My position as community relations and public information officer was not established before I joined MBPD,” French said. “Chief Cook had the foresight and trusted me to do this job without having been employed with the agency for very long.”

Cook, whose successor — former Deputy Chief Jaye Loggins — was sworn in Oct. 25, leaves a substantial legacy, French said.

“Chief Loggins often credits Chief Cook for preparing him to do this role — even when Chief Loggins wasn’t aware,” French said, adding that Cook “has left us in capable hands and will continue to be regarded and respected as a decorated, professional lawman.”

After 36 years in law enforcement, Cook reflected on a career as a cop in Alabama’s biggest city (at the time) and its wealthiest.

Q: Why are you retiring?

A: I have had a long and very blessed career. I just reached my 15th year in the state pension system in August — 14 of those years as a police chief. That is a pretty long time in “chief years.” I turned 60 this year. I celebrated my 10th year with Mountain Brook this year, and when hired I told Mayor [Terry] Oden and Sam Gaston I would stay at least 10 years.

The next most significant date for me is five years away — would be having 20 in the state pension system. It is a good time to leave as we have an awesome command staff ready to take their next steps in development and leadership.

Q: What are you looking forward to doing in retirement?

A: I have a whole host of things I have neglected doing around the house. I hope to play more golf. I plan to hunt and fish a lot more. Those may not be in my order of preference in planning to do!

Q: What have you enjoyed during your time with MBPD?

A: My time in Mountain Brook has been absolutely fantastic. This is an amazing community with awesome citizens and a city government that supports the department 100%. I was blessed with wonderful personnel. We have had the resources to really develop our officers, and they have responded by doing the most excellent work, day in-day out.  I have made great friends and enjoyed terrific relationships. The Mountain Brook city government is great to work for. They truly have the best interests of the city at heart. The department heads and Sam Gaston are the most professional and just awesome to work with.

Q: What are you the most proud of in your tenure at MBPD?

A: Really so many things. The community relationship and communication. Both enjoy awesome relationships with other city departments.

Q: In concrete terms, how did the department improve during your tenure?

A: We were able to increase the number of sworn officers from 52 to 65. The increase is in response to changing criminal patterns, threats and needs.

We increased the number of school resource officers from one to six and now have one assigned to each school.

We created and increased our social media footprint. We have developed a cellphone app to be able to push information out faster to our citizens. We expanded on a popular informational email going out from the police department when I got here to a weekly update that citizens can register for on the city website under the “Police” tab.

The city adopted the Tier 1 benefits for what since 2013 had been Tier 2 benefits for new hires. This really takes better care of our personnel and makes us more competitive in hiring.

We are expanding our police fleet of vehicles to assign one to each officer over the next three years. This should have a dramatic effect on the visibility of the police in the city.

We developed two safety classes for our citizens: the Situational Awareness and Basic Self Defense and the Basic Firearms Safety Course. Both have been highly received.

We have been rated the No. 1 Safest City in Alabama and are consistently rated in the top five safest cities on a regular basis.

Q: You’ve also made other technical advancements, right?

A: We developed a drone unit, and have seven certified pilots.

We developed an Honor Guard Unit.

We built a training building we share jointly with the fire department. This enables us to host training much more easily.

We have expanded training and technology that has enabled us to partner with federal partners.

We have personnel trained to be able to examine a whole host of technologies to a far greater extent than an agency our size normally has the ability to do.

Q: How did you get interested in law enforcement in the first place? Was your first job with the Birmingham Police Department?

A: I got interested in law enforcement as a teen. I got in trouble, was given a break, wanted to do better than I had been. Plus, I never liked people taking advantage of others. My first police job was in Birmingham, November 1985.

Q: For several years you were a mounted patrol officer. I believe your partner’s name was Cochise. How did that come about and what was it like?

A: I was on BPD’s mounted patrol from May of ’88 to July ’97. It was the best police job Birmingham had. People always wanted to come up and see the horse, and that provided a great opportunity to speak with people. Also, the mounted unit was a part of the tactical unit, SWAT team. I was afforded some pretty awesome training by truly terrific professionals.

Q: Over the course of your long career, what’s the most significant change, or adjustment, or thing you had to learn in law enforcement?

A: Law enforcement is always changing, whether by legislation or court decisions. It is constant learning and updating to keep up. Plus, technology has come light-years forward. I was blessed to have a career where I was constantly provided opportunities for first class training, but even with that there were always things I could have learned more about.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge facing police agencies — as you see it — on into the future?

A: The demands of things the public wants police officers to handle continues to grow, including things outside actual law enforcement. So many calls now deal with mental health issues and domestic relations issues. More is expected and demanded of police on these calls with little to no resources for officers to actually get people some of the help they need.

Q: A lot of retiring officers find themselves in other security-related positions when they leave the force. Any temptation?

A: I would have to look at any other opportunities in law enforcement on a case-by-case basis. Frankly, I had the best job in the business at Mountain Brook, so it would probably take something really special to get my attention.