Meet the city official: New interim Madill Police Chief

Editor's note: The Madill Record is going to be running a weekly segment about city and county officials in Marshall County.

Life-long Madill resident Donny Raley was recently appointed interim Chief of Police for the the City of Madill. Raley was born and raisedinMadill,andhaslived his entire life in the city.

He boasted about raising his two daughters Angie and Molly here too. Raley said he is is an active community memberwhoannounceslocal high school sporting events and former Park Ranger that has been working as the CommunityRelations/Public Information Officer for the Madill Police Department since 2016.

The Madill Record recently sat down with Interim Chief Raley for a short Q&A for Marshall County residents to get to know him.

Q: Tell the readers about yourself and your background.

A: “I’m a Madill boy. I was born and raised here and graduated from Madill high school in 1983. Went on to Southeastern where I graduated with a degree in education. Thought I was going to be a football teacher and a couchanddecidedthatwasn’t what I really wanted to do. So in 1987 I went to work for the Madill Police Department asapatrolman.Worked there for a year and then an opportunity presented itself where I could do juvenile probation and parole. It was an opportunity for me to use my degree and still be in law enforcement. I went to work at the office of Juvenile Affairs, where I worked for 13 years. It was fun when I was doing probation and parole but the last four years I had been promoted to supervisor, and I moved my office to Ardmore. So I supervised Carter County, Love County, Murray County, and Marshall County. And it wasn’t somuchfunanymorebecause I sat behind a desk in an office and I didn’t get to work with kids. I had to manage employees and enforce policy and procedures. I did that for a long time and I enjoyed it but I just didn’t want to do it anymore. During those 13 years I was still a Marshall County reserves duty officer. I worked part time as a jailer. In 2001 I went to work full time at the Sheriff's office as a Jail Administrator. Then in 2005then,SheriffBobWilder sent me to the police academy. Then I was promoted to Under Sheriff in 2009 2010. His (Wilder) fourth term was up at the end of 2012 and he decidedhewasgoingtoretire. I decided I was going to run and I didn’t win. Which was a blessing actually to me, as they say when the good Lord closes one door he will open another for you. So at that time I had a dear friend who was Sheriff in Carter County and I was offered a job there. I worked four years there and retired in 2016. I was retired for two days, at the end of August 2016. I had my time in and it was the week of Labor Day weekend. On Thursday morning, then Madill Chief of Police, James Fullingim, called me to ask what I was going to do now that I was retired. I said I don’t know, I’m going to look for a retirement job. He said why don’t you come over here and talk to me. That afternoon I came up and visited with him. He wanted to create a community relations/ Public information position. To bridge the gap between the police department and the community. I thought that would be something I would be interested in. He ran it by the city manager the next day on Friday, they hired me that day. So I went to work the day after Labor Day, which would have been Tuesday of the next week. So I was retired for two days. Been here ever since. Seven years, going on eight years, andIhavelovedeveryminute of it. I’m a hometown boy. I grew up in Madill, went to collegeandlivedinDurantfor four years. When I was going to Southeastern I never had any desire to live anywhere else. It has been a blessing that I have had opportunities to stay home.”

Q: Tell our readers about your family.

A: “ I am divorced. I have two beautiful daughters. Angie lives in Oklahoma city and is in property management, and Molly lives here. She is actually a freshman teacher at the high school and coaches junior high softball. I have three beautiful granddaughters and one awesome grandson. I am expecting my fifth grandchild, we just found out at thanksgiving that she (Molly) is pregnant. I am very family oriented, and love my family to death. I have been very fortunate with two really good kids. Never had any problems, so family is very important to me. I want to leave a legacy for them to be proud of me as much as I am of them. I tease my two daughters. I say if I knew having grandkids was going to be this much fun I would have done them first.”

Q: Would you say your favorite role is being a grandfather?

A: “Absolutely, no question about it. Being papa to those four right now that the fifth one that is coming up is probably the best thing that I could ever imagine. My grandkids call me all the time to just check in on me. In October2022Iwasdiagnosed with liver cancer and so I am in remission right now. It has brought me close to them. They get worried about pop every now and then, they’ll call and want to know how I am doing.”

Q: Will you apply for the permanent position for Madill’s Chief of Police?

A: “I was asked by several people in the community when Steven (Ray) announced his retirement if I would consider applying for the chief position. I prayed about it, it was something I didn’t take lightly. I would get the same answer, that this is something that I have been called to do. So I typed my resume and submitted it to the city manager. I have applied for the full time position. I was already here. I know the ins and outs of the policedepartment.Iknowthe personal. Obviously I know thecommunityverywell. He( Fullinghim) thought it would be a good fit and he asked me to step in in the interim until the process is completed. I may get the position full time, I may not and I am perfectly happy with that either way it goes.”

Q: Do you think there needstobesomethingmorein the community for the teens and young kids to do?

A: “I think that is vital. Especially in the summertime. There are a lot of activities going on in the school year, but then on the weekends they’re just kind of left here with nothing to do, especially during the summer time. We have the pool, but that is all the activities we have for our youth. I do know the city is starting to do, they have taken over the little league baseball program so the city is going to be more involved in recreational programs for the kids during the summer time. Absolutely I would love to see some type of, we used to call it kids town, in the community to bridge that gap. As a city we can do movie nights in the park or different types of community events once or twice a month to give families a family oriented place to go. I am the president of the National Sand Bass Festival and have been for the past 10 to 12 years and one of the things we pride ourselves on is we are a family oriented festival. Wedonottakedonations or money from alcohol or beer vendors because we want it to be a safe fun place for people to be able to bring their families. I want to bring that to this side of it to do community type events. We have a beautiful city park, William Ray Park, and a beautiful park at City Lake Raymond Gary Park. We could utilize those areas to do some kind of family events. The limitations are just as broad as your imagination.”

Q: Is there anything else you would like our reader to know about you?

A: “I’ve been announcing football,basketball, and baseball for years. I announce track as well, here locally. I kind of branched out and some other schools have asked me to come. I was chosen about thirteen, fourteen years ago by the state associate to come up and announce the state track meet. Which was huge for me. I have done it every year since then. I have been very fortunate, to be that is a pretty big deal. The kids work hard to make it state and I kind of take it the same way. I have to get out and prove myself every year, work hard and I get to go to state. I’m very proud of that. I have really enjoyed doing sports announcing, it has been my go to stress reliever. A lot of people have hobbies where they go play golf or whatever to relieve stress and I go get behind a microphone and talk to people. I am a people person.”