Two months into his new position, the chief of the Westfield Police Department said the city provided him with a warm welcome to central Indiana.
Shawn Keen was appointed to the post in February by Mayor Scott Willis and assumed the role April 8. Keen spent 26 years with the Terre Haute police department, including 10 years as assistant chief of police and six years as chief, where he oversaw 137 sworn officers and 18 civilians.
As assistant chief in Terre Haute, Keen oversaw the criminal investigations division.
“I came from a larger department and the crime rate was considerably higher. It dealt with a lot of more violent crimes,” Keen said. “I probably investigated as a detective and as a supervisor about 100 homicides. (Westfield is) a different pace from where I came from. I had the opportunity to have a lot of experience in more serious crime. I have more experience in supervising a larger department. So, when I compare that to here, the things I see are opportunities. Probably the best resource that the department has is its people.”
Since he arrived, Keen said he has been sitting down with each police department employee 1-on-1, a process he is about halfway through.
“What I’ve learned during that process is that there are a lot of talented people here,” Keen said. “Westfield has done a lot of (lateral) hiring, so we have a lot of officers who have come from all over the United States. There’s a lot of experience and a lot of talent among those officers. So, the challenge for me is to best utilize that talent. We’ll develop a plan, through training, for where we’re going to provide opportunities to really utilize those talents. The human resources are really unbelievable here (with) the experience these officers bring to the table from all the different places across the United States that they come from. My job is to manage that talent and put it to the best use for the community.”
Keen said he is focused on training, including firearms training, tactical training and emergency vehicle operation, building instructors out of the available staff based on the strengths and expertise of the individual officers.
The WPD is staffed with 75 sworn officers, but Keen said the department will need to grow to more than 100 in the next few years as the city continues to grow. His job is to look at policies and processes to make sure department standards are sufficient to handle that growth.
Keen said in addition to officer training the department will focus on community engagement, such as participating in family-centered events where residents can interact with police officers and learn more about how the department operates. He hopes to engage in activities similar to those in Terre Haute, including holiday-themed events, a kids police academy and National Night Out. Keen also wants to target engagement based on the needs of residents.
“As police officers, we exist to serve the community,” Keen said. “Different members of the community have different needs. Being very engaged in the community is very important to me.”
Keen said the community has made him feel like Westfield is already a place he can call home.
“I love the community. This community just kind of captured me. It’s very welcoming,” Keen said. “I like the opportunities that are here because it’s growing so quickly that I just see a lot of opportunities here to make an impact. There are plans for a new police (station) here, a joint-training facility between the other departments in the county here is being planned. This is the fastest-growing community in the state, so we need police officers to match that growth.”
In addition to serving as chief and assistant chief in Terre Haute, Keen was also a member of the uniform patrol and served on the Special Response Team for more than 17 years. He also developed a social worker program, allowing the department to hire a social worker to address mental health and wellness calls and helping decrease volume of those types of calls to officers.
Keen is a graduate of the 259th Session of the FBI National Academy and the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police Executive Leadership Academy and is an active member of the FBI National Academy Associates and both the International and Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police.
He has a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in criminal justice.
Keen served four years in the United States Marine Corps before beginning his law enforcement career.
Keen and his wife Shelly have been married for 25 years. They have two adult children, Kelsey and Brendon.
Follow the WPD on social media at facebook.com/WestfieldPD.
