From the factory floors of Mississippi to the challenging streets of law enforcement, Jeff McCutcheon’s journey is a powerful American story of purpose and people. Before taking the helm as Oxford, Mississippi’s acclaimed Police Chief, Jeff built his life on blue-collar values, a deep commitment to his family, and a simple, yet profound, lesson learned early on: how you treat people truly matters. This foundational principle, instilled from his very first days as a jailer, became the guiding light for his career, showing him that effective policing and true leadership begin with understanding and respect for every individual.
Now, as Oxford Police Chief, McCutcheon brings those hard-won lessons to the forefront, spearheading a remarkable transformation within his department. He believes that every interaction is a chance to build trust, to listen, and to truly serve his community. Join us as we explore the compelling personal stories and the vital experiences that led Chief McCutcheon to bravely overhaul his police force, creating a new standard for community policing in Oxford, Mississippi, and beyond. This is an inspiring story of action, empathy, and the hopeful future of law enforcement.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
My name is Jeff McCutcheon, thirty-nine years old. I have spent eighteen years of my life as a law enforcement officer, but that’s not really how I identify myself. Anybody that knows me knows I’m a husband and I’m a father to two girls. It’s kind of my groundwork. I grew up just down the road from here, about thirty minutes, in a little town called New Albany. My entire family basically grew up and worked in the furniture factory. My mom still does. My father’s a pastor, and even in the summers of college, I would go back and work. And I tell people that because, man, I’m a blue-collar, you know, hard worker, and I saw that in my family, and that was ingrained in me. I’m proud of that. I’m really proud of that. It made a huge impact on me. And a lot of times you hear people, “Oh, you rose to the top because of someone you knew.” The reality is, I mean, it’s those that get after it and put their head down. And I was blessed. Man, my dad being a pastor, we moved a lot from time to time, and you had to learn to make friends. You had to learn to talk to people and played sports growing up. From the time I could remember, man, if it was a ball or somebody was competing, I wanted to be. In my senior year, we won a state championship in basketball. Man, it was amazing. You know, you work your whole life for that moment, and got through that moment, and then I was like, “Gosh, what next? Like I didn’t prepare for that.” And so, going into college, though, he just trying to figure out, “Man, what do you want to do?” And I’d always loved, one, being outside, but being a part of a team, and had this interest in law enforcement. And the summer that I turned twenty-one, I was doing landscape with this furniture company, and a guy working there I was telling about what I wanted to do. And he knew that the sheriff’s department just down the road needed some jailers. And I said, “No, I’ll do anything,” right, you know. I mean, that’s just want to get my foot in the door. So about a week later, I got a shot, and the sheriff gave me a chance to work for him in Tippah County, and man, it changed my life. You know, you experience things in life, and then you have this light-bulb moment together. Man, this is why God put me on this earth. And I’ll never forget the jail administrator. He was a former sheriff of that county, and older gentleman, and set me to. And he said, he said, “Some of you ever—you ever driven by or walked through a cemetery?” And I said, “Oh, yes, sir.” And he said, “There’s a star date and there’s an end date.” And I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “Don’t matter.” All that matters is what’s in between, in that dash. And he said, “There’ll be people that walk by your cemetery one day, and it’s that dash.” It’s what’s going to matter to them: how you lived your life and how you treated them. And he said, “You’re going to learn real quick in law. Enforcement, that how you treat people goes a long way for them and for you.” Those encounters are imported and people are imported. And so, working in a small jail, man, you you could to learn to talk. You know, at the time, we worked swing shifts and a night shift from midnight to eight in the morning. There was two of us, and somebody had to stay in the control room, so you by yourself if something went south. And until somebody else got there, your partner and come out, and you learn quickly how to talk, how to de-escalate. They wasn’t teaching us that at the time, but that’s what you were doing. You were listening to people’s stories, you were empathizing. You’re trying to make good decisions, not based off force, but based off leverage, of using my words, using my compassion to get what we needed to get done. And so, shortly, I did about a year’s stint there—year and a half—and I got an opportunity to be a patrol officer for the Baseball Police Department, and I spent about a year there. Incredible opportunity, incredible time. I quite a lot of what I learned initially as an officer to my FTO. He was unbelievable in teaching, like he truly took pride in teaching me how to do things, why we do things, how it makes impacts, and you know, when you go. I actually got to do my FTO before I went to the academy, and so when I got to the academy, I felt like, “Man, we just got to get it over.” Were like, “This guy had me so well prepared.” We were in classes. I’m like, “Ah, we’ve done that and that,” you know. It was, it was huge for me. But while I was at the academy, I was—I was there with about six or seven guys from the Oxford Police Department. And so, Baseball and Oxford are pretty close. And, uh, my wife and I just got married, and we were living here in Oxford. And so I still connected with those guys. And sure enough, one of my classmates was actually going to relocate to the Jackson area, and he saw me at the gym and said, “I mean, if you want to come over.” And that was in a great time. And fortunately, uh, in ’05, I got an opportunity to move over here and, uh, and start working at OPD. And, uh, so coming to OPD, did, uh, just like everybody else, you know, you go through patrol, and you serve as a patrol officer, and did that for a few years. And we were starting back a grant program to do DUIs, and, uh, so I got an opportunity to serve as a DU officer and did that for about six months until, uh, and in a criminal investigation spot opened up, and was really fortunate to get that position. There were a lot of guys that put in, and I had an incredible captain that, going into that position, I would say I was pretty headstrong and driven with with blinders on, you know, not a lot of forethought on what I’m doing. There’s a mission, you get the mission done, and let’s roll on and don’t ask a lot of questions. And he was completely the opposite. He was super patient and, and, and very coachy about the way he would do things, which would drive me nuts because I’m like, “Give me a case! I don’t want to—I don’t want you to see me again until I saw it, like I’m want to be on the street, you know.” And, and he would constantly reel me back in and slow me down, and, and we would debrief cases. And, and again, I didn’t understand it really well.
And you’re listening to Jeff McCutcheon, and he’s Oxford, Mississippi’s police chief. When we come back, more as Jeff continues his story here on Our American Stories. Lee H. Habib here, and I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily. Again, please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming. And we returned to Our American Stories, and now let’s return to Jeff McCutcheon and more of his story.
Even in my time at the jail, I thought I understood dealing with individuals and why that’s important. But when I became an investigator, I really, really learned, because you go and you deal with situations where people have been victimized, and that could be from a property crime, or or that could be from a personal victimization. And the heartbreak that you see, you know, and the fear in their eyes. And many times, you’re their last hope. Can you get me answers? Can you help me? Can you solve this? Can you put the person away who did this to me? And at that time, we were struggling with a rash of property crimes. I think for a year or two, man, we were averaging like three hundred and sixty-five a year, which, you know, in a small town like Auctreman—man, every day somebody’s getting their house broken too. You know, that’s a big deal. And I found a little bit of success early, and you know, like with anything else, you find that success, and you’re like, “Oh, man, I gotta get more of that!” I got to craft myself better, and to come back for somebody. I’ve never been a victim of a burglary, but when we’ve sat down and talked with these people, it wasn’t about, “That you stole my stuff.” You violated my peace of mind. You know, you took something from me. I may never feel comfortable back in this house again. And to knock back on those doors to say, “Hey, that person’s in jail, and, oh, by the way, I got a truck coming, I got all your stuff back!” To see that, though, just the color in their eyes change. It was. You understand why law enforcement Austris get just get lost in this job, because there’s no feeling like that. You even now, we’ll brief our newbies on, “Hey, when when this moment happens, I promise you, I’m gonna have to kick you out of this office, because there’s no feeling like that!” Again, no home run you ever hit, no walk-off three, when you helped somebody and you absolutely change them, man, there’s nothing better. So, went through that, did about six and a half, almost seven years, of investigations. But in that time, we had some cases that we took to court and thought they were just jam-up good cases, you know, really solid cases. And I’ll never forget, we had a multiple burglar case and had several people that had already, you know, taken please, and we took it to trial. And we had a witness saw pretty much everything that went down. They saw people pull up. They saw those people go around the house, come back with stuff. We were like, “We’re good. Multiple people had already taken their guilty plea.” The jury came back not guilty. And I remember sitting there like, “Whoa, how did we lose that?!” And so we get an opportunity to go back and talk with the district attorney and say, “Hey, we need to find out how we can do better. What happened?” And he said, “You don’t have a relationship with this community.” And I say, “What do you mean?” They’re like, “And the reputation of your department is not great.” They were like, “You know what? Hey, there was about a thirty-second window.” “She didn’t see such and such, so now, not good enough.” And that moment then reminded me and downed on me. Did every encounter we have has got to be spot-on. Every time we go in a gas station to get a drink, we need to be smiling and speaking to people. We need to be personable. We need a relationship with our community. And it was at that moment where you begin to change who you are and how you do things. A lot of times, even as a young ulstra, I didn’t mean anything bad or think anything about, “I’m focused.” So I pull up at the gas station. Man, I’m getting my drink. Get back, because I’m trying to do work. But you miss all of those moments in between. Another teaching moment: we had a case where an individual took their life, and again, a young investigator. He’s trying to teach me to look beyond just what’s in front of me, as a big case investigation. And he made me go back and trace the steps that that person took for the twenty-four hours prior to that moment. And so what I found was that that person actually was out the evening of shopping for the items that they would then use to take their life. And I just remember going back and replaying that video, and I kind of stopped watching them after a while, and I started watching the people around them. Why didn’t somebody hold the door for, you know, could I have been that person on that aisle that would have looked at them and just spoke or maybe just a smile, or that moment at the register? You know, how many moments have we missed in our life for people that are just struggling internally, that those gestures may have pushed them one more day, and then it maybe somebody picks it up the next day? And so when you—when you begin to see all of this in your law enforcement career, and you begin to be shaped by the images that are in your head, and, man, sometimes those are traumatic. You have to then either bury them, or you have to use them for the greater good. And during that time as an investigator, that became my mission. So my wife and I got into ministry work with students, and again, you’re—you’re kind of crafting yourself at all times. You know, “What am I learning? Am I seeing in the world?” And we found out that all of these people that we thought were what we would call “okay.” When you get into a world where you start encouraging people and building people up and lifting them up, and you see their whole mannerism change, and you’re like, “Wow, I did that through encouragement of you!” And then you get to talk to them like, “Yeah, man, I really was in a low place, and that word of encouragement or that positive message or just that hug or that smile, man, that was huge for me!” That pushed me to the next day. And so I continue on as an investigator, and then an opportunity popped up that I thought—would you know—never consider myself a person that would be on the administrative side. But we had a Major of Operations position open up, and I put in and was just unbelievably blessed to have that opportunity. And so you go from Jaylor to the street officer, to du officer, to invest gator. And in between all that, I had some SWAT time, and probably been here four years, where we had a hostage situation, and our team actually had to make entry and do a rescue. And, you know, the—the things that you pick out of that is: you train all these years and all these hours for one moment, but that one moment is critical to someone else. And so it helped to remind me that the little things that we’re doing on a daily basis, that we can’t take them from just, “It’s just mundane work, it’s mundane training, or this is not important.” That moment that you have to use it, it’s important to someone. It’s important to those men that were in the stack with me. That I was a team leader at that time, and I hadn’t even been a team leader probably two or three months, and we had that event happen. And, you know, all you can think about is, “Did I do everything to prepare these gays for this moment?” And I prepare for this moment, and, and it turned out good. We were able to rescue an individual and not hurt someone inside. It was perfect scenario. But you take all that, and it begins to continue to shape you and shape who you are and how you lead. And so as Major of Operations, we began to focus on that personal touch of law enforcement. And at the time it was Chief Joeyast. We took a complete turn in law enforcement for OPD into what we call community-based policing, where we focus on community events and going out and meeting the public. And, you know, we were met with a lot of frustration in that because that’s not the style that people were used to. And even for me, I was like, “Man, I don’t know how this is going to work out,” you know. “I mean, we’re cops.” We got to go out and, you know, take care of things. And so, so that was twenty fourteen. That summer I got to go to Quantico. I spent two and a half months in Quantico at the FBI Academy and just met some incredible people, got to take some great classes on leadership and communication, and learning about what other places are doing and how they’re doing. I’ll tell you what I learned is in the out. You know, when we talk about hospitality and we talk about those things, it’s legit, like it’s real. And the way we treat people and interact with them is completely different than other parts of the world. And it made me appreciate how we do things, because I would be out with some of the buddies, and they would be from different areas of the country. And I’m the “Yes, ma’am,” “Yes, sir,” and the people are looking at you like you’re doing. And it’s that respect that goes a long way, because it opened up other dialogues and opened up other conversations about just different things, because now you’re approachable.
When we come back, more of Jeff McCutcheon’s story, Oxford, Mississippi’s story, and so many communities around this great country, here on Our American Stories. And we returned to Our American Stories, and now let’s return to Jeff McCutcheon and more of his story.
I’m contrary as it is, so, you know, being in the subway in D.C. and talking, and you’re us. People are just looking at you and, “Right, yeah, I’m not from here.” I get it. So, twenty nineteen, he decided to run for sheriff. It opened up the chief spot for an interim role, and I was fortunate enough to receive that and become the interim chief in twenty nineteen. And he was still the guy, “All right?” I mean, because he’s still running for office, but I’m trying to hold the seat. But it wasn’t one of those things where I wanted to just sit on my hands and say, “Well, you know, we’ll just—let’s just keep everything as it is.” And I don’t feel like that’s leadership. I don’t feel like that’s helping the men and women that you serve with, and I definitely don’t think it helps your community. And so we just decided, “Let’s—let’s run like it was ours, all right?” Let’s just don’t set back and wait for things. I don’t want to be a counterpuncher. I want to be the first. And so we crafted a new mission statement, and so our mission statement was completely people-driven. We didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t people-driven. So every phone call that we take, every traffic stop that we make, every call that we go on is tied to a person. There’s nothing in law enforcement that you do that’s not people-oriented. I don’t care if you’re out directing traffic, you’re dealing with people. You’re doing people in those cars, and the way you present yourself and the way that—the way that you interact with them in every situation absolutely matters. Go back to that new investigator who lost a case that should have been a good one because we didn’t have that relationship. So we bega
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