By BARBARA GREEN
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The seeds of public service were planted within Matthew Poole at the tender age of 13 as he wrote letters to his father who was serving overseas in the U.S. Air Force.
He looked up to his father and public service was a prominent value within his family. As he grew up, Poole knew he wanted to continue that in some fashion whether it be in law enforcement or the military.
Matt and his twin brother, Andrew, used to joke as kids they would become “smoke jumpers.” Matt laughs he soon decided jumping out of plane into a fire was not for him.
After the pair graduated from Nocona High School, Matt decided to attend police academy and graduated in 2003. His brother Andrew went to firefighter training and EMT school before turning to law enforcement himself.
The brothers each protect different parts of Montague County as Matt is a captain in the Nocona Police Department and Andrew is the school resource officer for the Bowie Police Department.
“I got my first police commission in February 2004 and job in Nocona. After academy I worked as a jailer at the county jail because I was not yet 21 and could not carry a gun,” recalls Matt.
From 2006-09 he left the job to work at Pioneer Drilling during the shale boom, but returned to NPD where he serves as a captain. With 15 years of patrolling his hometown under his belt, Matt stepped off into a new venture this past year writing a book released in the fall. Its pages explore the often difficult and painful task of being a police officer and a Christian man. The new author hopes people may come to understand the fine line these public servants walk, a journey that can impact every aspect of their lives.

Read the full feature in your weekend Bowie News.