After 25 years on duty, two Grand Traverse Sheriff's deputies retire

May 4—TRAVERSE CITY — Deputies Kyle Egelski and Jason Hamilton spent a combined half-century patrolling the roads and keeping the peace.

They've sacrificed family holidays, events and moments for the Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Office.

Neither of them have ever worked for another law enforcement agency.

Looking back, they said they wouldn't change a thing.

"Both of them are the type of officers that just do their job, and they do it very well," Sheriff Michael Shea said. "Kyle and Jason are just outstanding people, and they're exactly what you want a law enforcement officer to be — they represent it."

Over the course of the past 25 years, Egelski and Hamilton have served in many roles, including field training officer, dive team, honor guard, community police officer, drone pilot and undercover Traverse Narcotics Team officer.

"I made it home every single night of my career, and that was always important," Hamilton said. "You go out there, and everybody goes home."

One night in 2005, he said, was the closest he came to not meeting that goal.

While arresting a drunken driver near Supply and Hobbs roads, Hamilton said a westbound car ignored the flashing lights and sirens and hit him while going about 45 mph.

"Thankfully, I recovered from that," Hamilton said. "So there was one night in my career that I didn't come home, but I was at Munson."

About a year later, in 2006, Egelski had one of his most memorable moments as an officer.

While off-duty shopping at the mall with his wife and daughter, one of the security guards came to him and told him a man was following a little girl around the store.

As the guard went to call 911, Egelski said he took over monitoring the situation.

As he watched, he witnessed the man take a photo up the young girl's skirt while she was trying on shoes. At that point, he said, he had to fight the man to take him into custody and grab his cell phone as evidence. Justice was ultimately served.

"It was great to prosecute somebody like that and do something out of doing our normal thing," Egelski said. "It caught me off-guard, but I guess it's one of my best memories."

Both men said, when they first joined the sheriff's office in 1999, their goal was to make the 25-year mark.

"As a little boy that dreamed of being a police officer to make it 25 years and be able to retire, that was always the goal," Hamilton said. "My family doesn't care about titles or rank, they're just proud they can say that 'My dad's a police officer.'"

As far as retirement, both he and Egelski said they're looking forward to spending more time with their families.