Twenty-seven years ago David Hall of Wheelersburg joined the Scioto County Sheriff’s Office as a part time dispatcher. In 1988 he was hired to work in the Scioto County Jail full time. From there he bcame the first full time deputy in Porter Township. When a detective slot opened up in 1993, he took that position, and when a sergeant’s spot in investigations came open in 1997, he made that step as well. In 2002 he accepted a captain’s position in the corrections division. He stayed there until asked to return to investigations in 2007.
Hall has been a long time fixture at the sheriff’s office until this Thursday. That’s when he will retire from the place he has called his home away from home since as far back as anyone in his life can remember.
“It (having Hall on his staff) has allowed me to be able to feel confident in the Investigations division and also in the jail because when we moved over here, he was also our jail administrator at the time,” Scioto County Sheriff Marty V. Donini, said. “It has allowed me to focus my efforts and concerns on other areas of the office because Dave was always there and Dave was competent in running both of those divisions.”
Hall refers to his job as a “wonderful experience.”
“I couldn’t do it without my wife, Kendra and my kids – Austin and Danielle, because if I didn’t have a supportive family I wouldn’t be here today,” Hall said. “I missed many ball games. I missed many birthdays. I missed many important events because they knew my job was important and that people needed us. So they sacrificed family time for the people. It has been a blessing. God has carried me through 27 years because it has been a dangerous situation at times, but it has been great. It has been a good career for my family.”
Hall said, while he is retiring, he has also accepted a position with another company.
“My boss (Donini) has been great to me,” Hall said. “He has opened doors for me and has been very supportive with everything that I have done. I can tell you, with Marty there has never been anyone he has told us not to go after. He has never been selective on who we go after and he has been supportive especially in sensitive cases. He never tried to influence or guide us on those. He has given his blessing on everything that we’ve done, supportive in supplying the tools, everything that we needed to do our jobs.”
Hall refers to Donini as his “role model.”
“When I worked the jail and when I came out on the streets, he worked Investigations,” Hall said. ” I remember one such situation when I took fingerprints. I matched a fingerprint at a burglary scene and it went to trial and the courts dismissed it because of a lack of evidence. I was pretty upset. I told him how upset I was and that I didn’t want to take fingerprints anymore because of how I felt. He said, ‘you know what? You did your job and you can’t quit doing your job because you are serving the people right when you’re doing your job.’ I’ll never forget that. I try to treat people like I want my family to be treated.”
Hall said it is not lost on him that law enforcement officers have been marginalized across the nation.
“It’s a difficult time in law enforcement right now because of some decision making by some officers in some different parts of the United States and we all get categorized because of their decision-making,” Hall said. “And sometimes they are justified and many times they’re not in how they handle situations. It makes it tough on us all.”
At the center of Hall’s life is his faith which has been built over his involvement with two churches.
“I get to play music in my church and I’ve got a lot of Christian people around me that keep me grounded and help me with my walk,” Hall said. “My former pastors where I was before, Union Freewill Baptist Church, and my current pastors at Christ Community Church have always been supportive and if I need them I can call them. To this day I still call my former pastors.”
Hall said his pastors also call him at a time when he needs them as well.
“I guess it’s spiritual intuition that they know that I need to talk for a minute, and they’ll call at the right times,” Hall said. “That is just neat the way that works out. It kind of puts them in touch with me and it’s always a blessing that someone is there supporting you and praying for you and you’ve got people like that who can guide you.”
Donini said he will put Hall’s position up for bid internally to see if any current employee is interested in the job.
“What’s so unique about that spot is that my captains are fiduciary employees,” Donini said. “which means they are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement. They serve at the will of the sheriff. Hopefully I can find somebody internally. Bottom line is that I have a vacancy and that doesn’t mean that the person internally will be the one that gets that position. That’s what we normally do with collective bargaining positions. We post it and allow people to bid on it.”
Donini said, once the holidays are over, he is planning a reception for all in the near future and will make the date of that event known whenever it is decided on.
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