York, VHPD captain and air force veteran, retiring after 38 years with city

When Captain Kevin York was just a boy growing up in Detroit, he knew exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up: a police officer.

His father’s best friend, who was a Trenton, Michigan police officer, would let York and his twin brother come down to the station to learn about the police. York was hooked.

“As little kids, we idolized him,” York said of his father’s friend. “I always wanted to be a cop after that.”

York, who is head of the detective division of the Vestavia Hills Police Department, will retire this month after 38 years with the department.

He got his start in law enforcement as a military police officer, when he joined the United States Air Force as a 17-year-old in 1978.

After returning from active duty, York said he got a job as an officer at the University of Alabama Birmingham, before eventually joining the Birmingham Police Department.

In 1986, after York started a family and decided to make the move to a department in the suburbs, his service with Vestavia Hills began.

At the time, VHPD had 24 officers, compared to about 90 today.

He started with the patrol division, getting promoted to corporal in 1993 and sergeant in 1996.

In 2001, he was pulled away from Vestavia and back into active duty with the Air Force, where he transported Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

When he returned to VHPD in 2003, he was moved to the detective division and became an investigator before being named lieutenant in 2010.

From there, he worked with the emergency services division of the department, and was one of the founding members of VHPD’s S.W.A.T. force. That, he said, is one of the accomplishments he is most proud of.

“That was something I always wanted to do,” he said.

York commanded the S.W.A.T. team until he was moved into an administrative role.

Finally, York was named captain in May 2016, and has been the head of the detective division since.

“I’ve enjoyed doing that,” he said.

Reflecting on his career, York said it isn’t the high-profile, major moments that he is drawn to. Instead, it’s the moments that usually go unnoticed, because they are just part of the job.

“The things that stand out in my mind are usually the smaller things,” he said, referring to catching a burglar in the act, or taking children to the hospital after a fire. “It was really the little things, the things that you sign up for and do, that you enjoy the most.” 

And while police work sees its ups and downs like any profession and recently has had some difficult times, York finds purpose in what he did, and would tell any new officer the same.

“It’s still a very honorable profession,” he said. “It’s still a good profession.”

York said he is grateful to his fellow officers and to the city leaders who have supported the department over the years.

Now that he’s not going to be doing what he’s done since he was 17, he said he is looking forward to being retired, even though it will be a change of more than just work.

“When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you’re not leaving a job, you’re leaving a lifestyle,” he said., but added he feels it is time to move into retirement while he is still young and healthy enough to enjoy it.

He said he has projects around the house he plans to attend to, as well as trips he wants to take with his children.

In January, he will be getting a new German Shepherd puppy, the training of which he joked will be similar to a full time job.

“So I have things planned,” he said.