Distinguished Police Officer honoree goes above and beyond the call of duty

By RANDY CAPPS

How does a man who doesn’t swim well and never really wanted to be a police officer wind up in a boat attempting a water rescue after a vehicle crash?

If you’re TJ Mims, the answer comes from a desire to help people. That desire makes him a fine choice for the 2022 Johnston Now Honors Distinguished Police Officer Award.

“I had no interest,” he said. “A lot of people you talk to would say that ‘I always wanted to be a cop.’ Or, ‘My dad was a cop.’ I had no interest at all. I thought people who were cops were brave, but I didn’t think there was any way I could do that. Long story short, (during my internship in Zebulon) I did my first ride along. I rode with a guy named Nate Brown. He’s retired now, but I rode with him and I just saw the reaction to him. All the kids running up to his car, wanting stickers and getting high fives from him. They just wanted to hug him. It wasn’t at all what I thought it was. I thought it was just, you know, getting in fights and getting shot at all day. It was the complete opposite. The town just loved him. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was, and the more I went on ride alongs and got to hang out with a lot of cops, I just fell into it.”

Mims, a Wendell native, earned a degree in criminal justice from East Carolina University. He thought he was going to be working in Zebulon, but fate had other plans for him.

“I had to do an internship in order to get my degree,” he said. “So I went to Zebulon Police Department. I actually had a lot of fun and met a lot of cool people there. They pretty much wanted me to be a police officer there. They paid for me to go through the academy and took care of everything. Right before I graduated, the position they had for me (got frozen). So I pretty much was out of a job. One of the guys in Zebulon, Jason Bridges, his dad was Wayne Bridges, who was chief in Clayton at the time. They got to talking, and Clayton had just opened up a position. My name was put in the hat, and here I am.”

He joined the Clayton Police Department in 2013, and his job has changed along with the town over the last decade.

“When I first came on, I was a brandnew, green rookie,” he said. “I just got

promoted last year to sergeant, so now I’m a supervisor. It’s changed pretty drastically. I went from being on the bottom of the totem pole to running a whole squad. ... I do less reports, but more admin stuff.

“I truly love what I do. I love helping people. Most of the people we deal with, it’s pretty much their worst day. Helping people out when they need it the most is a big deal to me. I have people I dealt with in my first year as a cop that still remember me to this day. ... I’ve had people thank me for saving them, just from words of encouragement and trying to help them. Just simple things. Over time, what keeps me going is still helping people.”

That’s exactly what he was doing the evening he found himself paddling a boat.

In January, Mims and three fellow officers were honored by the Town of Clayton with the Life Saving Award for their response to the situation.

“They picked on me about that,” he said. “I’m going to be honest with you. I’m not a very good swimmer. Not the best.”

Mims and his fellow officers were on duty when the call came in for a single-car crash, in which the car had run off the road and hit a tree before landing on its roof, blocking both lanes of traffic.

Mims arrived and, after finding two small children inside the car, he was told by a passerby that the driver had run away from the crash site.

“When I got to the end of the street, I heard a splash,” he said. “I knew there were ducks back there, so I thought it was a duck. Because, who jumps in the water? I started to walk away, but something told me to check behind the house.”

After getting permission, he went around back. Flashlight in hand, as it was getting dark by that point, he started scanning the area.

“I heard, ‘Help,’ real faint,” he said. “I turned around and saw somebody’s hand pop out the water. I thought, ‘There’s no way. They’re in the middle of the pond.’”

Officer Banks arrived, and asked permission from the home owners to borrow a boat. He dumped the water out and hopped in. Despite his feelings about the water, Mims got in, too.

“I don’t think I had ever mentioned to anybody that water’s not my thing,” he said. “Watching the camera footage later, I assumed I was terrified, saying crazy stuff. But I sounded a lot more calm than I thought I was. So we paddled out to the middle, and by the grace of God, she didn’t tip the boat over. We pulled her in the boat and paddled back to shore.”

Mims recalls these details as calmly as one might go over a grocery list. Ask him about his family, however, and his face brightens.

“My favorite person is my little girl, Journey,” he said. “That’s my baby. She’s 2 years old, and when I’m not at work and I’ve got her, that’s what I’m spending my time doing.”