At the corner of Hampstead and Rodriguez drives sits the Midwestern State University Police department, home to the office of Sergeant Kelly Maloney, the station’s investigator. He solves crimes on campus that involve theft, burglaries, assaults and most recently Internet shooting hoaxes.
A Texas native, Maloney grew up on a farm near Iowa Park Road with seven brothers and sisters. He still has the farm, and at one time kept pigs and cattle. “I just have hay there now. I grow it and sell it,” Maloney said.
He started working in law enforcement in 1976 as a civilian jailer. Maloney said that he doesn’t remember why he became a police officer. “That was a long time ago,” Maloney said. A long time indeed, as Maloney still works in law enforcement, totaling 36 years of service.
Eventually he decided to sign up and go through the police academy. Maloney has worked as a detective for the Wichita Falls police force, a supervisor over the civilian police academy, crime stoppers, crime prevention and much more.
The first time he worked for MSU was in the 1980s for 23 months. After that he returned to the city where he would be promoted to sergeant.
“I’ve solved crimes that include theft, burglaries, assaults and rapes. I’ve solved them days after it happened, right after it happened and even some burglaries as they were in the act,” Maloney said.
Not all crimes are solved, however. Maloney said that when he doesn’t solve a crime, he knows he will at least get the criminal eventually. “I’ll work on another crime and catch them there,” Maloney said.
Working for the police did not leave him much time to spend at home, as working the second shift caused him to miss a lot of time with his oldest son, missing some of his birthdays and ball games.
“Anyone working in the afternoon is going to miss that. It’s not just the police,” Maloney said. “People who work in businesses also lose that time to spend with family.”
Maloney said he decided to retire in January 2004 so he could spend more time with his father. Maloney said, “Three days after I retired my father died. I didn’t get to spend much time with him.”
He went back to working for the city and finished his master’s in political science with an emphasis in public administration. He had a choice of taking 30 hours and writing a thesis or taking 36 hours and no thesis.
“I decided to go with no thesis. My adviser said I would have to write a 20-page paper instead,” Maloney said. “I could write that standing on my head.”
He wrote more than 50 pages on drug testing in the work place, causing his professor to call him back and put the thick paper on the desk. “He said this is your paper. It’s too long. I need a content page and chapters,” Maloney said. “I should have taken the thesis course.”
Maloney said he is the first person in his family to earn a master’s degree.
“It was a personal goal. My youngest sister Paula was close to finishing her master’s,” Maloney said.
After leaving the city he worked five part-time jobs. He weighed his options and decided to get a full-time job with benefits at MSU.
“Of those five part-time jobs I stopped doing one of them when I started at MSU. I still farm, work construction and work at Kell West. So I still do three of them now,” Maloney said.
In the case of a dorm burglary, he first talks to the people that live in the room. Then he talks to whoever visited the room, checks the cameras, and will check with businesses to find out if the stolen goods were sold or returned.
“It takes people skills to work as an investigator,” Maloney said.
His oldest son is now a police officer who works the evening shift. The same one Maloney worked. At 2:45 p.m. Maloney left to pick up his granddaughter.
“I asked my granddaughter if she was going to be a police officer like her daddy,” Maloney said. “She said no, ‘I’m gonna be a rock star.'”
