Many people around the building are wondering, “So who’s the new guy in town?” That is Officer Zach Pillard of the Pleasant Hill Police Department, and here’s what you should know about him.
Officer Pillard has been on the Police force for a total of about 7 years this year, and has been serving Pleasant Hill for four years this coming February. He started his career at the West Liberty PD in West Liberty, Iowa, where he served for about three years. A couple of years after joining the Pleasant Hill PD, he became a school resource officer in November 2023, starting at the SEP Junior High School.
So why did he want to become an officer? Well he’s got a very simple answer to that.
“I wanted to arrest people and put the bad guys away.”
Just like the new sophomores, he had to move buildings as well, giving him a lot of figuring out to do.
“Transitioning from the Jr. High was kind of a big adjustment, just because obviously it’s three floors. There are new classrooms, new hallways, new teachers, new bathrooms, so everything’s just new.” Sounds like Officer Pillard struggled like a student trying to get a grip on the high school! “It was probably a week, two weeks to kind of figure out [the students’] schedules and things like that.”
He enjoys building bonds with the students instead of just seeking out everything they do wrong. He enjoys doing his job, but aside from that, he’s a person just like everyone else.
“Mainly, I can interact with the students, you know, I feel like I’m young enough to kind of relate to them. I kind of my main thing, I like talking to the kids.”
Officer Pillard simply asks for integrity in people, and many people don’t have that.
“If I try and tell someone, hey, stop doing this or don’t do this, and then a week later they do it again. That’s kind of the most frustrating part, but it’s part of life.”
He really appreciates the way everything is done on the law enforcement side of things, but he doesn’t like how everyone assumes he knows every law simply because he is an officer.
“Being an officer here, a lot of people look to you for answers, even though I might not necessarily have the answer right away. If I don’t know something, I can go find the answer real quick and come back to you with what you need to know.”
What are some differences in high school and middle school behaviors? Officer Pillard notices that most high schoolers are more mature than middle schoolers, the students are overall more relaxed, and that there is less confusion about right and wrong.
“I will say the class of 2028 is kind of like the wild wild west, you guys have matured a lot, so the difference is just a maturity level. Obviously, middle schoolers are still full of energy and strung out, and everything is new to them. I kind of refer to them as barracudas. They see something new and shiny, and they gravitate towards it. That’s the main thing about middle schoolers, and then when you get to high school, the student body is more relaxed.”
Some wonder if there are more incidents at the junior high school than at the high school. Well, he notices that most of the problems that arise root causes are again the maturity level of the student, meaning that if a student understands the repercussions of their actions, they are a lot less likely to do said action. 8th and 9th graders naturally have less maturity than high school students, so there are more incidents there.
“Students here kind of know the repercussions of what could happen. There’s a level of maturity there. Some of the juniors and seniors who are eighteen and commit a crime go straight to Polk County jail if I have to arrest them.”
Officer Pillard is a man of respect as well as integrity, so if you’re polite and truthful to him, he’s going to do the same for you.
“I treat everyone with respect. I keep an open door in case someone has an issue, so no, I don’t think I’m treated any differently than at the junior high.”
After a hard day’s work, he goes home and has to decide what to do.
“I like to go to the gym a lot, about four to five times a week. I hang out with my wife and two dogs, watch football, and do stuff around the house.”
And finally, what everyone has been reading for: his tattoos! He’s a big DC comics and horror movie lover, but let’s let him explain them.
“I’m a DC comic fan. On my right arm, I have all of the DC villains. I’ve got Scarecrow, Riddler, my Joker, and then I’ve got Batman. On the back, I’ve got the outline of the city and things like that. And then my left arm, I’m a horror movie fan, so I like doing a horror movie sleeve. This one is Pennywise, and the most recent is Michael Myers.”
At the end of the day, Officer Pillard is a person just like everyone else; he values mutual respect and integrity, and loves his wife and dogs. Just because he has a badge and a gun doesn’t make him any less like you or me, although there is unfortunately a misconception that all cops are bad. Not all cops are bad, but all cops must do their job, and that is extremely important to remember.
