Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home Police Department swore in local high school graduate Justin McCubbins as a new police officer on March 16.
McCubbins graduated from Sweet Home High School in 2000 after returning to Sweet Home from West Linn, where he had lived for 10 years, for his senior year.
He said he was happy to get back to Sweet Home.
“It was really nice,” McCubbins said. “West Linn was very rich, and you could tell by the way people acted.”
McCubbins had several close friends in Sweet Home. He played football and baseball for the Huskies.
“I was going to school to be an engineer,” McCubbins said. He attended Linn-Benton Community College. “I switched over to math major. I was going to teach high school math.”
In January, he said, several different people, family and friends, talked to him about law enforcement.
“My brother, Levi, said, ‘Oh, you’ll make a good cop,’ McCubbins said. “They heard about a position opening and said they think you would be good for it.”
McCubbins applied for a full-time temporary position. He will replace an officer who is trying to get a job in the Portland Metro area to be closer to family.
McCubbins rode with police officers, and “just loved it,” he said. “It’s great. It’s pretty exciting.”
He most looks forward to “the excitement of doing different stuff every day,” he said. He also enjoys working with people. “I like working with the public. I was drawn to that.”
McCubbins wants to make law enforcement a career in Sweet Home, he said. “We’re not planning on going anywhere.”
Moving to West Linn at age 7 was a big change, McCubbins said. “Moving back was a lot different. There’s a genuineness (in Sweet Home). I like how I know everybody, everybody knows me.”
When he went to the Police Department, half of the people who work there already knew McCubbins, his dad or brothers.
Prior to going to work for Sweet Home Police Department, McCubbins worked for his father, Dan, and his brother Gabe doing construction.
He has been married almost two years to Candi McCubbins. They have an 8-month-old daughter, Hannah.
He leaves for police academy in August.