MANSFIELD — Jason Bammann looked to the back of the room Friday morning after he was sworn in as the new chief of the Mansfield Police Department.
His father, retired MPD Sgt. Mike Bammann, returned his gaze across a packed City Council chambers in the Municipal Building.
“You always told me … you get in this job, do it right. Ride hard, shoot straight and always be fair.
“I’ve tried to always do that. So I guess maybe it worked, huh?” the new chief said.
The 50-year-old Lexington resident, in his 25th year with the MPD, credited everyone in the room with his success, especially his family.
His wife, Stephanie, was in attendance, along with their daughter, Jillian, and son, Blake, who joined the Mansfield Police Department as an officer in 2021.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for pretty much everybody in this room,” he said. “First and foremost … my family … 25 years of this job … it’s been crazy.
“You have all stuck with me through thick and thin, ups and downs. Thank you for that.”
(Photos from the official swearing-in ceremony for new Mansfield police Chief Jason Bammann in City Council chambers at the Municipal Building. The story continues below the gallery.)
Jason Bammann, who entertained the idea of studying art at Ashland University following his graduation from Madison Comprehensive High School in 1992, officially followed in his father’s footsteps when he joined the MPD in 1999.
“Of course, this is where I always wanted to be. This is home,” Bammann said last week when Mayor Jodie Perry announced he was being promoted from the role of assistant chief.
Bammann replaces former Chief Keith Porch, now the safety service director for the city.
He served in the community services bureau on afternoons and nights, working patrol shifts until he was promoted to sergeant in 2014.
“I really didn’t have any ambitions of getting into supervision. But, like anything else, sometimes you get stagnant. I decided I could either sit around and be a bump on a log or I can do something different,” Bammann said last week.
He took the advancement exam and was promoted, which prompted Bammann to enroll at Ashland University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
“That was a personal goal of mine I always wanted to achieve,” the new chief said. “Once I got done, I enrolled at Tiffin University and got my master’s degree in justice administration.”
“The pieces started falling into place and I guess I am kind of shocked we are sitting where we are today,” he said with a laugh.
Bammann was promoted to lieutenant in February 2018 and was assigned to the administrative section.
There he began working with grants, supervised the 911 Communications Center and the drone unit. He also served as the department’s incident commander.
In December of 2019, Bammann was re-assigned as the METRICH Task Force before being promoted to assistant chief in June 2021, helping to oversee the entire agency, including dispatch and records.
Perry, who took office in January, said she had gotten to know Bammann in the last few years in his role as assistant chief.
“We did put Jason through his paces, a couple of different interviews. Through that time, I really had a chance to get to know him and I could see very well why he has such a crowd here …. why he has such strong support in the department,” Perry said.
“He is just a very kind and generous man, someone who takes his job very seriously. I became convinced he was the right person to take us into the next generation at the police department,” the mayor said.
In his remarks, Bammann singled out the MPD retirees in the room.
“To the retirees ahead of me that paved the path, I can’t thank you enough. I always tried to watch and learn and you all set great examples for everything,” he said.
“This book of MPD is a big book. There’s a lot of chapters in that book and we just opened ours … so let’s write our own history.”
After the ceremony, handshakes and hugs were finished, three generations of Bammann police officers posed for a photo.
Sgt. Mike Bammann retired in 2008 after more than three decades in the MPD and is still the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 32.
“I always knew he could make it on his own. I knew he’d do well. When he got hired, I made a concerted effort to stay out of it. I had some influence here in my days and he didn’t need it. He didn’t need me to get here. He did this on his own,” the older Bammann said.
Jason Bammann acknowledged the role his father played in his development.
“I think it pretty much led to the straight path (to law enforcement). Growing up with him and his buddies, the old guys, they were like superheroes to me.
“So how do you not travel down this path?”