When Crawfordsville Patrolman Luke McVay begins his shift, you can bet he’s done his research.
Always learning, always serving — that’s the McVay way.
Launching his career as an officer with CPD nearly a decade ago, White County native McVay said he studies articles and reports daily, because you just never know how a situation will unfold once you arrive.
In fact, he credits his fellow officers at all levels as being influential and beneficial to the department, always learning and taking what he can from their experiences.
“What if another officer does something and you’re like, ‘Oh, I never thought to do that’? That’s why you read case laws, you read other officers’ reports and you read other articles — ‘OK, maybe that will apply to this.’ Or if I make a traffic stop and I notice something because I read someone else’s report, I’m like, ‘Oh, I would’ve never noticed that two weeks ago because I didn’t take the time,’” McVay said.
“Not everybody’s the same, we each do things a little bit different. I’m not the youngest guy anymore and I’m not the oldest. I’m kind of in the middle now,” he continued. “I want the guys underneath me to know, and the guys who trained me already know, that they can ask me anything and they don’t have to worry about what I’m going to say.”
Growing up in the small town of Chalmers in White County, McVay, 35, graduated from Frontier High School in 2005 before gaining an associate’s degree in criminal justice at Ivy Tech. He later attended Indiana Wesleyan University where he received a bachelor’s degree in business.
McVay said one can never be too sure what lies ahead, so it pays to have a “Plan B.”
“I got the bachelor’s degree as ‘in addition to’ so that maybe in retirement, or if law enforcement didn’t work out, that I had a degree in something other than law enforcement so I had a different background,” he said. “Say I retire after 20 years of service and go do something else, or maybe even have my own business or work for someone else — I’ve got that as well. That was at least the idea.”
McVay soon joined CPD following graduation from IWU. A couple years later, he met the love of his life, Jessica. The two were married in April 2015 at St. James Lutheran Church in Lafayette, where they currently reside.
In addition to his budding family, McVay wears a number of hats at CPD. From SWAT to field training to becoming a STOPS instructor — strategies and tactics of patrol stops — McVay has seen it all.
Traffic stops may be his favorite part of the job, he said, in addition to the adrenaline rush of SWAT calls.
But one thing he doesn’t like about his job is handling domestic issues involving children, saying his heart goes out to these kids who are in their worst time of need.
“That would probably have to be my least favorite, only because the type of call it is, or some kind of domestic violence. Not because I don’t want to go to it, but because of what it is,” McVay said. “That genre of calls is my least favorite, but a lot of time that’s where you have to put the most effort in. Because you want to make sure for that kid or that family, that what needs to be done is done right.”
When off duty, McVay enjoys spending time working on his Ford Mustang or Ford Lightning sport pickup truck, calling himself a sort of “gear head.” He also has a background in extreme sports, growing up riding BMX and MTB bikes.
“Sometimes they leave me stranded, sometimes they don’t. That’s the adventure of it,” he said. “When it comes to this job or working on those things, if I don’t know it, I’m going to seek out how to do it. Generally, everyday when I come to work I try to research something.”
But whatever McVay is up to, whether on the road or on the trail, safety is always key just like with his career.
“If I can help somebody, even if it’s not a call I’m going to, somebody flags me down and needs some help, if I can help them I’ll help them,” he said.
