Photo by Sarah Sole
Come fall, a local superhero will retire from fighting crime.
Pickerington Police Officer Dan Simcox, known to many as Officer Batman, will retire from the police force in October after more than 25 years of service. Like most superheroes, his legacy is marked by compassion, bravery and a bit of luck.
Faces: First female mayor of Pickerington helped her community grow
Simcox, 63, might be best known to Pickerington residents through his work in the city’s local D.A.R.E. program. He started participating in the program in 2000 and has graduated more than 20,000 fifth- and sixth-graders.
After Pickerington Local Schools’ replacement levy failed in 2010, funding for D.A.R.E. evaporated.
“I didn’t want to let that go. I had too many kids involved,” Simcox says.
He began teaching the two-week programs at the schools before classes started. Even then, quite a few signed up. About 250 students attend each class. The T-shirts Simcox designed for the program feature a police officer holding hands with a family.
“I want them to understand that it’s not an ‘us and them’ thing with the police,” he says.
One of Simcox’s favorite things about the D.A.R.E. program is his practice of letting the kids ask anonymous questions as an ice breaker. He also enjoys the alcohol education portion of the class, in which kids wear special goggles that simulate a .08 blood alcohol level. Simcox has the children weave through a line of cones.
“They love doing that part,” he says.
This fall, the police chief’s son and one of Simcox’s own grandchildren will get to meet Officer Batman.
Working with children is important to Simcox. In addition to his D.A.R.E. program, he has worked with Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, showing them around the station or helping them earn merit badges. He also trains kids in bicycle safety and has participated in block watch and crime prevention programs.
In the early 2000s, fully embracing his superhero alter ego, Simcox began dressing up as Batman at community events. But every Christmas, Simcox sports the red suit and white beard of one Jolly Old Saint Nick.
“I’m all over the place as Santa, as a volunteer,” he says.
This past year, a record 327 children visited Simcox at the Pickerington Public Library for candy and a donated toy.
Simcox’s own childhood was marked by frequent relocations across the country. Part of a family that struggled financially, Simcox lived in 19 states plus Canada before finally settling down in Ohio.
His mother could play any stringed instrument, Simcox says. When he was 6 years old, the family visited the Grand Ole Opry so that his mother could audition.
“She got halfway through this song that she wrote and stopped and looked out at everybody, dropped the guitar, and she was never the same again,” Simcox says.
Unable to recognize her family, Simcox’s mother was institutionalized and died at 40 years old.
“She never knew us again,” Simcox says.
The eldest of two brothers and two sisters, Simcox realized he and his siblings were in danger of being split up by the government. Soon, however, he came up with an idea. What if they were to try and sell the bread his father made from scratch? He and his brother started going house to house, carrying the bread and rolls in a basket. The small business venture took off.
“We made our living that way,” Simcox says.
One particularly cold winter, Simcox was out delivering bread in below-zero temperatures. He couldn’t even put his hands in his pockets to give change. As he stopped in a restaurant to warm his hands, an older man bought him a hot chocolate with his last quarter.
“I could feel the warmth going through me,” Simcox says.
As a boy that day, Simcox promised to pay the man back for his drink. Upon returning from the Vietnam War, he tried to find him and ended up visiting the cemetery where the old man was buried.
“It became a tradition. Every year, I’d go there and put a quarter on that tombstone,” Simcox says.
Another winter nearly proved deadly for Simcox.
Out delivering bread, a 10-year-old Simcox decided to take a shortcut across a frozen lake. Halfway across, the ice gave way. Holding himself up by his arms, Simcox told his dog, Boy, to go home. He didn’t want the dog to see him drown.
Boy did run home, but Simcox’s brother knew the dog was acting strangely. Boy ended up leading Simcox’s father and brother to the ice, grabbing Simcox by his shirt collar when he slipped from the ice. He woke up to his dog licking his face.
“Ever since then, I’ve always liked dogs,” Simcox says.
At 18 and against his father’s wishes, Simcox joined the army, spending two years in Vietnam, 16 years in Germany and two years in Virginia. He would end his military career with the rank of staff sergeant.
Simcox’s military service led him to his wife, Ulrike, whom he met while on duty in Germany. Married in 1972, the Reynoldsburg couple now have three sons and 11 grandchildren.
Simcox was highly decorated for his Vietnam service, and as a military policeman in Germany, he was awarded the highest peace time medal for saving two people from a burning car. Eventually working his way up to the Criminal Investigation Division, Simcox worked cold case files and solved them, too. He had an 80 percent solve record as a criminal investigator.
“It wasn’t because I was so smart or anything, but I was lucky,” he says.
These performances birthed his Batman persona. The nickname followed him to his career with the Pickerington Police Department, thanks to Simcox’s habit of successfully apprehending criminals. A capture of a prison escapee in the early 1990s even led to a re-enactment on America’s Most Wanted.
With television shows behind him, Officer Batman remains popular with the local youth. A stack of letters from D.A.R.E. students sits on his desk. Once in a while, former students come back to visit him.
“That’s why I know the program worked: is the impact from the kids,” he says.
Sarah Sole is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
