May 26, 2004 By Steve Ferris 6 min read

Friday will be Uniontown police Det. Phillip W. Jones’s last day on the job and the beginning of a new profession in which he will still use his investigative skills and have more time to spend with his family. Jones, who was hired as an officer in 1994 after an eight-year military career and was promoted to detective about five years ago, said he has decided to retire and accept a job as a special investigator for St. Paul Travelers insurance company. He starts June 1.

“I’m going to miss it. Once you’re in law enforcement, it takes up so much of your life, it basically becomes your life,” Jones said.

He said he wasn’t actively seeking another job, but the company approached him after he had worked with some of its representatives while they were investigating local insurance claims.

“Up until three weeks ago I was not planning to take the job,” he said.

But when they made him an offer, he said it was too attractive not to accept.

“I feel a little guilty about leaving – like I’m jumping ship or something,” Jones said.

He said he will make more money with St. Paul than he makes now and will work out of his Georges Township home and the Minnesota-based company’s office in Pittsburgh.

The job will enable him to spend more time with his wife, Mindy; son, Tyler, 17; and daughter, Jessica, 12, and reduce the amount of stress being a police officer placed on all of them.

He said people he has dealt with on the job have approached members of his family and he is regularly called away to handle crimes.

“Two to three times a week, I’ve had to leave my family to deal with a situation in the city,” Jones said.

It happened recently during one of his son’s baseball games and he was coaching.

Despite the amount of time he invested, Jones said he will miss working in Uniontown

“I’m definitely going to miss the Uniontown community. I’m familiar with 90 percent of this community. I’ve made some good friends here. I’m going to miss being a cop. It’s just the right time in my life to grow,” he said.

“Phil’s been an aggressive cop his entire career,” Chief Kyle Sneddon said. “He’s a person who has a natural ability to be a police officer. He’s handled all types of crimes. He has excellent investigative skills. His demonstrated ability got him another job. This is a significant loss to the department. Those are big shoes to fill.”

Mayor James Sileo said he was surprised by Jones’s decision to move on and praised his work for the city.

“He’s going to be missed. He’s one heck of a good detective,” Sileo said. “I have a lot of respect for him. I’m sorry he’s leaving. He did an excellent job for our city. He had a knack about being a detective.”

Sileo said he understands the appeal of a higher-paying job and wishes Jones well.

“I hope it works out. I wish him well,” Sileo said.

Sneddon said he will meet with the Teamsters union that represents the officers, Sileo and other city officials about the detective position.

“We’re going to look at different possibilities with our criminal investigations,” Sneddon said.

He said investigative duties might be spread among more than one officer, which would reduce the amount of stress that Jones endured as the only investigator in the department.

“I’m looking at a burn out factor,” Sneddon, a former detective, said. “You (a detective) are on call 24 hours. You live life by the pager and cell phone.”

In the interim, Sneddon said he, his senior officers and other seasoned officers will handle any investigations that arise.

Jones said the workload is huge. He said he has moved about 150 felony arrests in his tenure and has between 500 and 1,500 cases – involving everything from child abuse to thefts to homicides – per year. With many cases still working their way through the court system, Jones said he will have to return to testify when needed.

The key to being a successful investigator is communicating with people in the community, he said.

“Communicating with the people you serve is important. I’ve treated everybody fairly. I don’t try to trick or lie to people. I approach them in a straight up manner. I’ve received a lot of information because of that,” Jones said.

He will put what he learned in Uniontown to use wherever his new employer sends him. His territory will be southwestern Pennsylvania and he believes he will be able to conclude most of the insurance claims investigations he is assigned in one day. The types of claims will include wrongful deaths, auto theft, burglaries and robberies.

St. Paul Travelers was formed just last month when The St. Paul Companies and Travelers Property and Casualty merged. Jones said it is now the second largest insurance company in the country and he is looking forward to being part of it.

“I’m looking forward to it. The company has a lot to offer. They made me an offer I really couldn’t refuse for the benefit of my family. It’s definitely going to be a drastic change for me. I’ve been in uniform for 20 years.”

He said he left for Army basic training the day after he graduated high school. “The military was my first career choice. I had a pretty exciting military career.”

He was selected for the Special Forces and was in training when he shattered his ankle during a parachute drop, which ended those career plans.

“I still wanted to contribute to society so I became a cop,” he said.

While he believes he has been successful as a police officer, there are parts of the job he will miss.

“I won’t miss negative images like child deaths, crack houses and robbery victims. I’ve had some good times here, but what most of what we see as police officers is the negative side of society. I’m looking forward to the positive side,” he said.