Tragedies and rewards: Coralville police chief retiring after 35-year career
"I feel like we're in a really good place."
Coralville Police Chief Shane Kron is retiring this month after nearly 35 years with the local department.
An Iowa City native, Kron said his decision to leave comes at a key point in his life after experiencing everything the job has to offer, good and bad.
"The days sometimes crawl, but the years just tick away," he said.
Kron, 55, first joined the Coralville Police Department in 1990 and served as a patrol sergeant and lieutenant before being appointed police chief in 2017.
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Kron had high praise for the next generation of officers and said, like a Super Bowl-winning coach announcing his retirement, he wanted to "go out on top" rather than stay too long.
"I love this place and I think the next chief is getting a fantastic police department," Kron said. "We have so many good people and a lot of them are young. There has been a lot of turnover in policing. Everybody knows that cops are hard to find, and cops that can do the kind of work that we do here are even harder to find."
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Kron never thought about a career in law enforcement. Then, he tried it.
An Iowa City Regina grad, Kron headed to college with hopes of becoming an elementary school teacher.
But during his brief time as a University of Iowa student, Kron knew a friend who had a friend who, outside of school, earned money working as a reserve deputy for the Johnson County Sheriff's Office.
Even better, Kron said, it paid $12 an hour in 1989 — equivalent to roughly $31 per hour today. The pay was rather appealing for a self-described "broke college student" who often gathered up laundry change to put gas in his moped.
Reserves don't carry weapons and can't drive their own police vehicle. They ride with deputies and work as extra hands at the county fair, help to direct traffic or, if certified in certain areas, provide a helping hand on search missions.
"I absolutely loved the job," Kron said.
A little while later, he passed the deputy test despite running the required mile-and-a-half in jeans and hiking boots.
Kron spent 10 years as a sheriff's deputy at the Johnson County Jail before he earned a spot on patrol.
"I thought 'I can work 10 years in the jail,'" Kron said. "Well, I worked six months in the jail and I realized how long 10 years really is."
Respect for the law
Kron often worked with Coralville police when they brought suspects to jail. An interaction between a Coralville police officer and a frequent offender reinforced Kron's desire to go back on patrol.
It also taught him a vital lesson about policing.
On that particular night, Coralville police responded to a call about a man who, after having a bit too much to drink, started to fight with the authorities.
When they arrived at the jail, the man was searched before being booked. Then man then did something that stuck with Kron.
"He turns around and he puts his hand out... and he said, 'Sorry, Jeff. Sorry. Thanks. See you tonight,'" Kron said. "I just thought, man, that's police work, where you do the job but you do it with honor, dignity, and in the end, there's this mutual respect."
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Long career 'takes a toll,' despite the rewards
Kron was hired by the Coralville police department as a patrol officer.
He started on July 2, 1990, a day filled with paperwork and department training. He was on patrol the next day and, at the end of his shift, he thought to himself, "I love this."
A day later, on July Fourth, he stood on the scorching pavement along 22nd Street, dressed in dark colors on a 100-degree day, directing traffic around the city's Fourth of July parade.
"I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, what did I do?'" Kron said, laughing. "That's police work. I mean, I didn't know what I was going to have to do this morning when I got here, right? This job is unpredictable."
The nonstop nature of the job means that Kron has been working around the clock for the past three-and-a-half decades.
That experience generated many vivid memories, from happy and funny to traumatic and horrifying.
Every interaction sticks with you, Kron said.
"In any police career, you're gonna see tragedies, and they do take a toll," Kron said. "I'm not gonna lie, there are calls over my career that I can still picture vividly, and some of those are from 35 years ago. Bad things happen to people and we are not immune from the effects. Like, I feel awful for people in some of these tragedies."
Loss is part of the job
Kron has dealt with several personal tragedies in recent years, which contributed to his retirement.
"I lost my administrative assistant to cancer in 2020. I lost Sargeant John Williams after an awful toddler death call in (20)22. I lost my brother at the beginning of this year, my 48-year-old younger brother," he said. "And I just came to the understanding that life's too short. You just cannot take anything for granted and because I have things I want to do yet. It's time to go."
Kron becomes a grandfather for the first time in August. Then, in September, he'll quickly have a second granddaughter to care for and love. He'll continue to teach one "dual enrollment" sociology-type course per semester for high school students at the Kirkwood Regional Center.
As Kron reflects on his 35-year career, he appreciates each encounter, from gruesome to heroic, thriving in an unpredictable profession.
"I've seen a few amputations. I've seen some death. I've seen some very tragic motor vehicle crashes. ... I've seen some awful, awful things," Kron said. "I've also made balloon animals for kids. I've taught (junior academy) for 18 years. Some of the most rewarding things are things I couldn't have ever imagined when I took this job.
There are tragedies that you can never prepare for and there are rewards that you never saw coming."
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Coralville Police Chief retiring after 35-year career
