Alan Baldwin was honored at the last of the Seward’s Law Enforcement Officer Extraordinaire awardees by the GFWC Seward Woman’s Club.
He was honored at the recent April 9 GFWC Seward Woman’s Club meeting at the Seward Civic Center at their final meeting of the year. He was presented a framed and signed certificate of appreciation and recognized and thanked for his dedication and leadership in law enforcement.
Alan was born in 1956 at Syracuse Nebraska hospital, the fifth of seven children of Floyd and Laura Mae Baldwin. He was raised in Palmyra Nebraska where attended school and where he meet is wife Janet Cheney –Baldwin from Bennett Nebraska. Alan’s older brother Dean was in US Navy at that time and his father Floyd had served in the US Army during WWII. All of Floyd’s brothers served in the military. Shortly after high school Alan joined the United States Army.
Alan was active duty US Army from 1974 -1976 and was army reserve active and in-active reserve until 1981 receiving an Honorable Discharge as a Sergeant E-5. Alan went to army basic training at Fort Polk Louisiana and his combat engineer advanced individual training was at Fort Leonard Wood. While serving active duty in Germany he became a company armor and also worked as a Supply Sergeant as a reservists.
While serving as an active duty Army reservists he was a Criminal Justice major at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
Alan and Janet Cheney were married March of 1979. Alan became a Beatrice police officer in June of 1979 and graduated from the Nebraska law enforcement training in center in May of 1980. While serving as a Beatrice police he continued his education graduating from Peru State College. Alan has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and has completed 15 master degree college hours from the University of Nebraska.
Alan served as a Beatrice police officer from 1979 until 1974 during his fifteen years at Beatrice he was promoted to Sergeant and was very active in the community recognized by many organizations and received many awards. He also served as D.A.R.E. Officer and Field Training Officer for the Beatrice police department.
Alan served as Chief of Police for the City of Cozad for three years. In 1997 Alan became the Seward Chief of Police he has now served the citizens of Seward over twenty years having over a combined 39 years of law enforcement.
During his 39 years of service he has worked on many violent crime cases and has made 100’s of arrests. Alan has over 3900 hours of advanced law enforcement training and is a certified trainer.
Alan his wife Janet live in Seward, they have three adult children and four grandchildren.
Alan has assisted with saving at least three lives, he gave CPR to woman in Germany while in the Army he help two drowning victims once just prior to becoming a police officer and once after that. He has helped many victims of crimes get away from the abuser. He has many people that were unable to help themselves.
He taught college for ten years at South East Community College in Lincoln. He taught introduction to criminal justice, police ethics, criminal investigation and police and society classes. He is a longtime member of the Seward Rotary Club, a past president of the club and a member of the Seward Kiwanis Club and the Seward United Methodist Church-participating in the annual “Last Supper” reenactment. He is also a longtime member of the Seward Fourth of July Celebration committee and a leader in the Rotary/SPD’s annual “Stuff the Cruiser” campaign.
The Law Enforcement Officer Extraordinaire award was presented by the GFWC Seward Woman’s Club to recognize and thank the local law enforcement officers for their volunteer service “above and beyond” their daily duties. The GFWC Seward Woman’s Club is one of the oldest volunteer civic organizations in the community, organized in 1900. Their international motto centers on the theme of “Volunteerism” and the club strives to recognize and thank local volunteers and businesses for their acts of kindness and volunteerism. The club will reorganize in August for their 119th year of volunteer service in the community.