Azle city, police officials remember veteran officer

“We are all grieving Sgt. Spohn’s passing,” Azle City Manager Tom Muir said in an email. “He admirably served the community for almost 35 years with distinction. He touched the hearts of so many citizens as well as every member of the Police Department.”

Muir said he expected Spohn’s services to be held next week.

APD Chief Ben Hall said in an email that Spohn was the longest-standing member of the department and “was as proud to serve this community on his last day here as he was on his first. He enjoyed a lengthy history and with this agency and was really our tie to where we came from as a department. He was a mentor, friend and leader."

He added: “It is impossible to summarize a 30+ year career with any degree of accuracy. His last position is an administrative sergeant had him keeping the wheels on the bus in a business that is complex and ever changing. He was our TCOLE (Texas Commission on Law Enforcement) training coordinator and Accreditation manager and supervised dispatch (and) all critical components of our organization.”

Spohn’s impact on the department was “significant,” Hall said.

“He loved this department with all his heart and gave us all he could,” Hall said. “While he left to retire a few weeks ago, he was still well connected and will forever be part of this PD and city family.”

A Reading, Pennsylvania, native, Spohn served in the Air Force and was discharged in 1988, when he joined the Azle Police Department.

“When I got out (of the military), Azle was the first job I came across,” he said in a Veterans Day supplement story that ran in the News in November. “I cannot say enough good stuff about the people in this community. We’ve started a lot of counseling initiatives, domestic violence initiatives, and done a lot of good things.”

He said a lot of his friends work for larger agencies like Fort Worth, but said “the thing I always enjoyed about Azle was the fact that I actually got to know people in the community. I made a lot of friends.”

Spohn and wife Nancy didn’t have children but planted roots in the city and the police department, Spohn told the News.

“The agency has become an extension of my family,” he said.

In addition to being a sergeant at APD, Spohn had been a police field training coordinator for the Police Department.

“Azle has always been my city,” he told the News. “The community has always been my people. I’ve been blessed by this community.”