McKelvey talks about being appointed as Mason City’s next Chief of Police

MASON CITY — Mason City’s next Chief of Police says he’s ready to step into the role later this year. 

Mike McKelvey has served almost 31 years with the Mason City Police Department. He previously held the ranks of Sergeant and Lieutenant and was promoted to be a Captain in 2006, overseeing the department’s Patrol Division.

On the “Ask the Mayor” podcast published earlier this morning on our news website northiowanow.com, McKelvey says he’s seen the good years and the bad years with the department, and one thing that is turning the positive direction is filling open positions.  “These last few years with the coincidental timing of COVID, the mass retirements of officers hired under the COPS MORE grants, then of course the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis, kind of had a real devastating effect on law enforcement across the country. I think we’ve seen that tide turn now to the positive. We’re starting to be able to hire more officers, so hopefully we can replenish and refill our ranks here.”

McKelvey has been recognized for his efforts on how law enforcement addresses dealing with people with mental health issues. He says with an ever-changing landscape on how the state manages the mental health care system, it’s many times that police are the first response to someone in crisis.  “The problem is, when we have folks in crisis, who are you going to call? It’s 9-1-1, they’re calling the police, because they know the cops will get there right now. The problem is for a person in crisis, we can try to deescalate and calm them down, but for a social worker or somebody to get out there, a lot of times that may take 20-30 minutes, possibly up to an hour. Once again, is that really a law enforcement role? No, but we’re trying to do the best we can to just keep things calm and try to get folks there. That’s a lot of the struggle of what our cops are dealing with.”

McKelvey’s appointment to the position was confirmed by the Mason City City Council on Tuesday night. He will start his duties as the acting chief on November 14th, which is current chief Jeff Brinkley’s final day of work. With accumulated vacation time, Brinkley officially will leave the position on February 10th, with McKelvey becoming the chief on that date.