DON JACOBS
Knoxville News
Knoxville Police Department Sgt. Will Wilson oversees a young squad of officers requiring heavy guidance, commands the agency’s unit tasked with handling potential riots, and supervises the K-9 division.
For his unfailing enthusiasm to tackle any problem placed before him, 42-year-old Wilson garnered the 2007 Officer of the Year honor from KPD. He had won the same award in 1999.
“Sgt. Wilson is a supervisor, leader and officer who exemplifies the KPD philosophy each and every day, and, in doing so, he is consistently ready to accept and meet any new challenges,” said Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV.
In the fall of 2006, Wilson was named supervisor of the K-9 unit. Since then, the unit has gained a certified trainer and has grown to 10 dogs, with nine used on patrol and one specializing in bomb detection.
By expanding the unit and its training, Wilson has provided KPD with a K-9 presence 24 hours a day.
Wilson said he had never been a K-9 officer, so he wasn’t burdened with preconceived ideas of the unit before he took command. But it also meant he had a steep learning curve to overcome.
Wilson applied the same fresh perspective to KPD’s Mobile Field Force, which is tasked with controlling crowds at potentially tense events.
“It’s a highly mobile group of trained officers who can handle a crowd before they become unruly,” Wilson said. “We can do a show of force to prevent trouble, too.”
Wilson said he joined the specialized unit in 2003 as a squad leader. In the spring of 2006, he was asked to oversee the unit.
The first thing the new commander did was seek updated training and new equipment for his offi cers.
“I found we were using some tactics from the ‘60s, so we retooled and retrained,” Wilson said. “We found some better ways of doing things.”
Those new tactics came into play in May and June 2007 when white supremacist groups from across the nation converged on Knoxville to protest the deaths of a young Knoxville couple. Wilson said he coordinated his Mobile Field Force with officers from the Knox County Sheriff’s Offi ce and the Tennessee Highway Patrol to prevent violence from erupting.
With no relatives in law enforcement, Wilson said he’s unsure what attracted him to a career with KPD. He served with the security police during his stint in the U.S. Air Force from 1986-91 before joining KPD in November 1994.
“I guess I never grew up,” Wilson said. “My wife says every 10-year-old wants to be a police offi cer.”
Wilson and his wife of 16 years have five children, four of whom are adopted.