From pastor to police officer, Brookhaven Police Department’s Kevin Thompson is one of the many who put the heart and soul into the thin blue line.

At 43, after pastoring in several churches in Mississippi, Thompson said he felt the Lord leading him to a more hands-on way of ministering to people.

“I just felt the Lord leading me to it. Just like when I was led into the ministry,” Thompson said about becoming an officer. “In so many ways this is such advancement in ministry because there are so many people that you can speak to that are hurting. A lot of people are out here in this world hurting right now.”

Thompson has been patrolling the streets of his hometown as an officer for seven and a half years now. He has a kind presence, with a warm and genuine smile that no doubt has comforted many in their time of need. Thompson said he started this job to help people, and it doesn’t take long to see he has the passion and heart to back it up. Thompson said being humble, realizing your authority and capacity to help others and truly listening to those you encounter are keys to being a good police officer.

“I believe as a police officer you must be a humble person,” Thompson said. “Even though we enforce the law you have to be very humble. You have to listen to problems. You have to have the right attitude, the right mentality to deal with people on the street.”

Thompson said a lot of times when police deal with people, they are already upset. He said as an officer you have to put yourself in the circumstances that they’re dealing with before you can break the issue down.

“It takes stepping that extra step sometimes to show people that you really do care for them,” Thompson said. “You know, we’re not the bad guys. We really do care.”

Thompson appreciates these opportunities to make a difference. One time in particular that Thompson said made him grateful for his position was a call about a lady stopped on the side of the highway. The lady had tried opening her door and had fallen out, unconscious. Thompson said performing CPR until EMTs could arrive saved the woman’s life, and though she died a year later, her family was able to spend another year with her because of those who responded. The extra step he took was visiting the woman in a McComb hospital later to check on her. Those times, Thompson said, are what makes the strife of duty worth it.

Another instance that has stayed with Thompson is a run-in with a student at Mullins Alternative School who had been so disrespectful to the principal that the police were called to take him home or to the station until his parents could pick him up. Thompson sees events like this as opportunities to help someone who still has time to change their life.

“After I got him to the station and explained to him, you know, that I knew his family and his grandfather and I had worked for years together logging, once he got to know me a little better his attitude changed,” Thompson said. “I asked him what he wanted out of life other than wanting to become a thug. Basically he said he really did want to go to college, play ball and go to college. After talking to him his attitude changed and ultimately he wanted to go back to school. So I took him back to school and he apologized to the principal for his actions and I haven’t had anymore calls on him.”

Reaching out to those who just need to know someone cares about them, and seeing them potentially turn their life around, is a pretty big perk of police work.

“Just to make a difference in somebody’s life,” Thompson said. “I love working with juveniles; it’s one of the things I like doing because I know they have a chance to change and not to become a criminal. They’re right at a decision-making time in their life that what they decide to do now is gonna decide their future.”

At BPD, every day is opened with “roll call” and then a devotional and prayer. Thompson said the closeness within a shift is a special thing.

“We try to take care of one another, [they’re] just like my family,” Thompson said. “I have a physical family that I go home to every day but I spend more time with my brothers and sisters in law enforcement than I do with my personal family. We get to know each other one-on-one and we lean on each other a lot of times.”

If a new cop were to join that family, Thompson has simple advice: “Be humble, listen and always have the goal that you came to the station and that you want to come home to your family.”