Mike Bailey

Police officer’s beat: understanding
Bailey serves on local school board, directs police academy

By SHAWN ANDERSON
Observer-Dispatch
scanderson@utica.gannett.com

UTICA - People don’t call the Utica Police Department to say they’re saving a great day, Lt. Mike Bailey says.

People call because their bike was stolen, they were assaulted or they’re having a dispute with a neighbor. In other words, they call because they’re in a situation they’d rather not be in.

Police officers are used to this life. But in the past year, Bailey’s been able to work with residents on a more intimate, happier scale as director of the Citizen’s Police Academy.

Bailey, a 2006 Accent on Excellence award winner, said he loves interacting with residents and teaching them about police work. He also gets to crush certain myths during the academy classes.

“I love CSI,” he said. “Great show. Fun to watch. But cases don’t get solved in an hour.”

Policing is a big part of Bailey’s life, but the 39-year-old Otsego County resident finds time for many community activities.

He serves on the Mount Markham Central School District Board of Education, volunteers as president of the Mount Markham Pop Warner Football league, and co-chairs the youth group at the West Winfield Federated Church.

Bailey, who graduated from Whitesboro High School in the mid-1980s, said the unpaid school board position was difficult, but worth it.

He said it was hard to discuss sensitive decisions behind closed doors and not be able to fully explain the board’s actions to the public. He’s also gotten a taste of the politics that exist even at the local school board level, he said.

“Why do you do the most frustrating job you’ll ever love?” he said. “Because you have the chance to directly affect the educational opportunities and the educational direction a whole school district takes.”

Tom Huxtable, a customer-service representative at Bank of America, co-nominated Bailey for the award. (Bailey’s wife, Rebecca, also submitted his name.)

Huxtable, who also serves on the school board, said Bailey exemplified the “stubborn talent that won’t go away but stays to make a difference in his community.

“It’s really been his leadership that has impressed me,” said Huxtable, 62, of West Winfield.

Bailey joined the Utica Police Department in 1990 as a patrolman. He recently received a promotion to lieutenant. Police Chief C. Allen Pylman said Bailey was an exemplary employee.

“Mike has an outstanding work ethic,” Pylman said. “He’s a mentor for our young officers, which is very important.”

Bailey will be eligible for retirement in four years. He said he’s not sure what he’ll do, but doesn’t plan to slow down.

One possibility, if he leaves the police department, is to continue teaching. Bailey said he enjoys standing in a classroom, regardless of whether it’s new police officers or ordinary residents before him, and simply teaching.

“Being in front of a classroom and watching the light bulbs go on, if you will - someone didn’t get something and now they do - it’s just a great feeling,” he said.