Glasgow Police Department gained a new officer at Monday evenings city council meeting. Officer John Wallen was born in Somerset, Kentucky in April of 1992 to Connie and Tony Wallen. He was raised in Albany, Kentucky and graduated from Clinton County High School in 2010. “One of my earliest memories was watching COPS with my dad,” Wallen reminisced. “I was really into superheroes at the time and the police and soldiers were the closest thing I saw to real life superheroes.”
“I originally went to college to be a history teacher, because I love history and wanted to make a difference,” he said. “but after I took a criminology class, what I learned made me think ‘That is how you make a difference’ and I feel that God called me into law enforcement.”
While attending Western Kentucky University, he was an intern with the ATF during the summer of 2014. He graduated from WKU in December 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts degree that included a major in Sociology, a minor in Criminology, and a minor in History.
He attended the Department of Criminal Justice Training for 23 weeks of training in Richmond, which he described as a mix of “military bootcamp and college” with cadets learning tactics used in pursuits, legal classes, weapons training, physical fitness conditioning and even rudimentary Spanish to assist with non-english speakers. “It is an unbelievable amount of information to retain in just 23 weeks,” he said. “You need to be well on your game.” Kentucky and graduated in May of 2018 with class 491. Wallen explained that within his class the cadets were from all across the state and came from all walks of life, ethnicities and ages, from early 20’s to 40’s.
While working for WKU Police Department, he received a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership in conjunction with a Graduate Certificate in Emergency Management & Disaster Science in June of 2021
from the Graduate School at WKU while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
During his time at WKU Police Department, he served as an Interim Corporal, Master Police Officer, and a Law Enforcement Training Officer.
John’s biggest achievement in life is his family. His wife, Jessica, has a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from WKU and serves as a Nurse Practitioner at the Med-Center rural health clinic in Scottsville, Kentucky. His oldest son, Noah, is 8 years old. His youngest son, Luke, is 17 months old.
