{"id":32040,"date":"2026-01-07T15:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=32040"},"modified":"2026-01-07T15:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:22:11","slug":"decatur-pd-adds-eaton-officer-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/07\/decatur-pd-adds-eaton-officer-to-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"Decatur PD adds Eaton; Officer to retire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Decatur Police Department has added a new officer and also is looking ahead to adding another to replace a retiring veteran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kobey Eaton, 22, has been a member of the Berne Police Department. He joins Decatur&#8217;s force as a \u201clateral hire\u201d since he graduated from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy last October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He will, however, undergo field training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"313\" height=\"461\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Kobey-Eaton.jpg?resize=313%2C461&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32041\" style=\"width:137px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Kobey-Eaton.jpg?w=313&amp;ssl=1 313w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Kobey-Eaton.jpg?resize=204%2C300&amp;ssl=1 204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 313px) 100vw, 313px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Eaton<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Chief Kevin Gerber told the Decatur Board of Works and Safety Tuesday night that Deputy Police Chief Chris Brite will be retiring in a few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The board gave the chief permission to begin the hiring process to eventually replace Brite. \u201cWe want to kinda get the ball rolling so we won&#8217;t get caught short-handed,\u201d Gerber said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added that six applicants \u2013 \u201cvery good candidates\u201d \u2013 have been interviewed for the soon-to-be opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brite, who has been with the department for almost 32 years, having joined in April of 1994, will be stepping down in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"140\" height=\"232\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-2.jpg?resize=140%2C232&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32042\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Brite<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He was elevated to his present position in June of 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eaton, a resident of Decatur who grew up in Adams County and the Decatur area, joined the Berne department last February. Prior to that he was a confinement officer with the Adams County Sheriff&#8217;s Department from July 2022 to January of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is a 2022 graduate of South Adams High School where he played football for four years, basketball for three years, and was on the wrestling team as a senior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ONE AND ONE: Chief Gerber&#8217;s request to have officer Dallas Creager removed from a standard one year of probation was granted by the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Creager joined the department on January 7 of last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The native of Bluffton and graduate of Southern Wells High School had been a member of the Geneva Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gerber also informed the board that Conrad Dyer has started his training at the police academy in Plainfield and should be finished by the end of April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2021 Bellmont High School grad was hired by the department last September after spending four years as a confinement officer at the local jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Dyer returns the department will be at full strength with 18 officers, plus Brite and Gerber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com The Decatur Police Department has added a new officer and also is looking ahead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-32040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/photoless-header-template-news.jpg?fit=252%2C144&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32043,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32040\/revisions\/32043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}