Grand Prairie Reporter

• Early in his career, after following a DWI suspect home, he entered a home where eight other people became hostile. Meine attempted to call for backup on the suspect’s home phone when he was attacked by a group of people and stabbed in the arm with a knife. The DWI suspect was ultimately arrested.
• After approaching an arguing, abusive couple at a nightclub, Meine put one handcuff on the man when his wife suddenly jumped on his back, and pulled him away from her husband. He managed to keep the two in custody while being hit even after the wife bit through his ring finger requiring plastic surgery.
• One of the few times Meine says he was afraid occurred while responding to a family disturbance call. The woman was fearful because her husband was acting crazy. The man was very large and a body builder. When he saw Meine, he charged him sending both men through another bedroom door and slamming him in to walls. Eventually police backup arrived and the man was arrested.
• Meine says a taser gun would have been convenient when he was called to a house about a man being abusive to his 17-year-old daughter refusing to let her leave the house. The 6-foot, 8-inch, 385-pound man became enraged when officers let his daughter out of the back of the house. He bolted the front door and began to threaten the officers inside. Meine was able to call backup officers outside giving them instructions to kick the door in.

Meine’s career timeline is as follows:

1973 – Hired to work in the city jail, where all police officers began their careers during that time. This gave officers an opportunity to meet criminals in the area.

1974-1983 – Began work as a patrol officer. While in Field Operations, Meine did a cost analysis on flashlight batteries and discovered that the department was spending thousands of dollars per year on them. He spearheaded installation of rechargeable flashlights in all police cars. While in Criminal Investigations, Meine drove offenders from the Dallas County jail through Grand Prairie to find out where their robberies occurred. In return, Grand Prairie police would clear their city records before they were sent to state prison.

1983 – Promoted to sergeant. He began work in forgery, auto theft, juvenile and narcotics. From 1985-1998 he worked in Field Operations where he was coordinator over all field training officers, and implemented the first training manual and assignment pay for training officers. Meine also modernized police scheduling from paper to Lotus to Excel and then to In-Time Solutions software, where he was one of three police officers in the nation serving on the advisory board for the company.

1998 – Promoted to lieutenant. He served over Traffic, School Resource Officers, Lake Patrol, Police Storefronts, Citizens on Patrol, the Crime Commission, Reserve Officers and Police Explorers. Meine analyzed calls for service and recommended re-alignment of beats, which are mostly the same today. He was instrumental in changing the employee review from a paper-based system to the Performance Impact online system.

1999-2002 – Asked to be system administrator for the Police radio and computer systems. He negotiated contracts and oversaw installation of the first on-board computers in police cars and implemented mapping software.

2002-present –Supervises personnel and training for the department. More than 100 police officers have been hired during his time in this position. He also negotiates contracts for training.

From 1998 until 2002, Meine was in the State Police Olympics for powerlifting and received several gold medals in bench press, squat and dead lift. He set several state records for his age and weight category—many are still in place. He received gold medals in two national Police Olympics and a bronze medal in the World Police and Fire Games.

Meine plans to travel some during his retirement and compete in ball room dance competitions with his wife, Pam. His son is also employed by the city.

Source: City of Grand Prairie