LIEUTENANT OF COMMUNITY SAFETY
Larry Dearing
Lieutenant Dearing was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. As a child, his parents were missionaries, so Lt. Dearing actually lived in Guatemala for some time. He enlisted the Army Reserve in 1987 at the age of 17 with an MOS in Communications. In 1988, Lt. Dearing graduated from Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood, Arkansas and two years later he attended college at John Brown University in Siloam, Arkansas.
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By 1995, Lt. Dearing joined the Arkansas Army National Guard with a Communications Unit until 2006. All throughout his teenage years, Lt. Dearing worked for his family's construction equipment company and continued to do so up until it was sold in 2000. This set into motion Lt. Dearing's move to law enforcement.
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In 2002, he joined the Fayetteville Police Department in Arkansas. After 6 years with Fayetteville PD, Lt. Dearing made his way down south to Foley PD where he started off in patrol. From 2009 to 2015, Lt. Dearing worked in narcotics, K-9, was a juvenile detective, and even earned a promotion to Corporal bringing him back to patrol. But in 2015, he was moved back to narcotics working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force in Mobile. Just three years later, while maintaining my duties and my security clearance with the FBI, Lt. Dearing was promoted to Sergeant -- moving him back to patrol. It wasn't until 2018 when Lt. Dearing began a local narcotics unit at the Foley Police Department. He rotated and trained patrol officers in interdiction, street drugs, undercover operations and task force and gang initiatives. Two years later, Lt. Dearing went back to our Criminal Investigations Division (CID) and in September of 2020 received his current rank of lieutenant. He remained lieutenant over CID for two years and then in February of 2022 he transferred to command the Administrations and Corrections division. He just recently was moved to commanding Community Safety.
Why were you interested in becoming an officer?
"I first was interested in law enforcement because I wanted to help people and to make a difference, but the reality is that I thought it would be cool to drive cars fast and shoot guns. It’s funny to think that this far into my career my passions have changed back to wanting to help people, mostly in being a part of the growth and development of my fellow brothers and sisters."
Why Foley PD?
"I was attracted to the Foley Police Department because, even back then, there was an atmosphere of family. I felt that everyone genuinely cared about one another, although we may not always like one another. I have stayed with Foley for so many years because my initial observations and feelings have proven to be true."