MANSFIELD — Michael Napier was a fifth-grade student when he met an Ontario police officer name Randy Hutchinson in a DARE class.
“Ever since then, I knew I wanted to be a police officer,” Napier said Thursday.
Hutchinson is now the mayor of Ontario.
And that youngster he influenced in the classroom is now the assistant chief for the Mansfield Police Department.
The 40-year-old husband and father of three was sworn in as the MPD’s No. 2 by Safety Service Director Keith Porch during a ceremony in City Council chambers.
Napier replaces Jason Bammann, who was promoted to chief in March to replace Porch, whom Mayor Jodie Perry Perry selected as the city’s safety service director when she took office in January.
Napier, an Ontario High School graduate who got his law enforcement training at North Central State College, joined the MPD in 2006 as a patrol officer.
“I always wanted to work locally and I always wanted to be very busy as a policeman and in this area, because all my family’s from this area. This was the only choice in my eyes,” Napier said after the ceremony.
(Photos of the ceremony Thursday afternoon in Mansfield City Council chambers for the swearing-in ceremony for new MPD Assistant Chief Michael Napier. The story continues below the gallery.)
And busy he has been.
Napier was promoted to sergeant in July 2015. He remained assigned to patrol until being reassigned to the detective section.
Upon his promotion to lieutenant in June 2017, Napier was assigned to the Office of Professional Standards in the Special Operations Bureau.
He currently serves as a recruitment and training supervisor coordinator, and serves on the range and SWAT teams. Napier has also been essential in seeking grants, including the MPD’s de-escalation simulator and its body-worn camera program.
Napier, was chosen as the department’s “Supervisor of the Year” in 2019, said he wants to continue to help move the department forward.
“I look forward to working with Chief Bammann. I feel like it’s all same administrators, the same people, just different titles and the department’s gonna continue growing,” Napier said.
Bammann, a Madison High School graduate who joined the MPD 32 years ago, made the choice to pick Napier, a decision supported by Porch and Perry.
Why Napier?
“I could answer that about 18 different ways, but I’m going to just say his genuine love for not just this community, but this police department. He has things you can’t teach. I’m just so proud of him,” Bammann said Thursday.
Bammann, who became the assistant chief in 2021, said the AC’s stated role is to work in support of the chief.
“But I see Mike doing the same thing I did and that’s working side-by-side with me. He will take a lot of the duties off my desk and I will do that without a worry,” Bammann said.
more coverage of leadership changes in the mansfield police department
During the ceremony, Bammann praised his new No. 2.
“This is a great day for not only the city, the citizens and the police department … but I’m going to be stingy and say it’s a great day for me because I’m adding one of the best officers in the department to an already amazing staff that I have,” the chief said.
“That means the world to me. For those of you that know Mike, I think I’m probably not going to surprise anybody. For those that don’t, Mike covers all facets of what I was looking for.
“If you know his work ethic, the guy’s squared away. He’s on time, he’s very attentive to detail. One of the big things with me is I know the position that he was in. He maybe had some tasks, as we all do, that we really don’t like to do.
“But Mike never complains and he goes 110 percent. And you don’t teach that. That’s a character thing,” Bammann said.