Vicksburg police veteran Jack Dowe interrupted a conversation Monday afternoon to receive a text message.

“Soccer practice is tomorrow at 5:30 in Bovina,” he read.

Dowe, who retired at the rank of captain last week after 25 years with the Vicksburg Police Department, has gone from patrol cars to carpools, and said the decision to retire was not a difficult one to make.

“Not at all,” he said. “I was ready to go and do other things.”

Dowe plans to spend time with his wife, Karen, branch manager for a local credit union, and his three sons — Jack III, 8, and twins Will and Cole, 3 1/2.

He also enjoys the outdoors as an avid hunter and fisherman.

Born in Vicksburg, Dowe grew up off Mississippi 27 near Utica, where his father, Jack Dowe Sr., owned and operated a supermarket for 30 years. His mother was always the people person, he said, sweet and nice to customers and others, while his father was the problem-solver and authority figure.

“I’m a combination of both of them, and was able to use that in the police department — I know how to treat people and be nice, and how to take care of problems,” he said

Dowe signed on with the Vicksburg police Jan. 15, 1984, right out of college. He had an associate degree in business from Hinds Community College and a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from the University of Southern Mississippi.

The names of the department captains and other leaders who trained and brought him along still roll off the tongue. “I started under Chief A.J. Holliday, who I have great admiration for,” he said, and went on to name many officers of the time, including his cousin, Capt. Robert Dowe, a former department chief. “These were the guys who instilled in me a good work ethic and taught me how to deal with the public.”

Jack Dowe said that will be what he misses most. “I have high respect for the people of Vicksburg. They always treated me with respect and kindness, and I want them to know that I appreciated that. I always tried to do the same — treat people with courtesy and respect. It made my job a whole lot easier.”

Moving up through the ranks, Dowe was promoted to sergeant after about 4 1/2 years, moved up to lieutenant two or three years later and after a few more years became captain. For a time, he was deputy chief of the department, moving back to captain when Chief Tommy Moffett came with a change in city administration seven years ago.

The business of police work has changed a lot in those 25 years. There are computers on desks, laptops in some of the patrol cars and radio equipment is much improved, he said. Their tactics have changed, and so have some of the crimes, with the advent of identity theft and credit-card fraud.

Drugs, too, have changed. “When I first came, there was no crack, no cocaine, crystal meth or heroin. What we were dealing with was marijuana. Now drugs are our No. 1 problem,” Dowe said.

One arrest he particularly enjoyed took place after a bank robbery on South Frontage Road. The culprit had wrecked his car near the golf course trying to get away. Then-Sheriff Paul Barrett and Dowe commandeered golf carts, drove across the course and surprised the man as he was trying to sneak away through the woods.

While he saw “many things most people will never see,” he never had to deliver a baby or shoot a suspect, he said.

Now that he has retired, he’s looking forward to more family time.

“I have a beautiful wife and three adorable sons who are interested in sports — soccer, baseball, football. Now I don’t have to miss any games or miss any practices. I think my plate’s going to be pretty full.”

Dowe’s already been put to work taking over the family grocery shopping and said he’s sure “as time goes by I’ll have more chores put on me.”

For those in the ranks, he offered this advice: “It’s not the uniform that makes the officer, it’s the officer that makes the uniform. You don’t have to talk rough or tough to gain the respect of the community, but treat people with dignity. It will make your job 100 percent easier.”

*

Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com.