Escanaba Public Safety Director John Gudwer

ESCANABA — The City of Escanaba has announced Escanaba Public Safety Detective/Lieutenant John Gudwer has been promoted to director of the department. The promotion was effective June 10 with the retirement of Public Safety Director Robert LaMarche.

Director Gudwer comes to the director’s position with almost 24 years of police and fire service to the Escanaba community. As Escanaba’s director of public safety, he will be responsible for leading a department of 30 sworn officers and four non-sworn personnel with an annual budget of approximately $4.4 million.

Gudwer has been involved in the law enforcement field since 1997 when he became a corrections officer for Delta County. In 1995 he earned a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice from Northern Michigan University. January 1999, he started his law enforcement career with Gogebic County Sheriff’s Department, before coming to Escanaba Public Safety in November that same year. While assigned to this position, his primary duties included patrolling the community to preserve peace and law enforcement, traffic control, accident investigation, crime detection/prevention and investigation, arresting of persons involved in crimes or misconduct and firefighting.

In January 2010, he was promoted to the rank of detective, where his primary duties included investigating crimes with extensive research requirement and assisting officers in procedural elements of investigation. Later that same year, he was promoted again to patrol sergeant. In this position, he supervised four officers, two dispatchers assisted in performance reviews, and supervised fire and emergency scenes. He ranked up once again in 2016 to lieutenant, where he was responsible for supervising sergeants and officers in both police and fire practices, as well as reviewing police reports, oversaw the LESO program, which assisted obtaining free equipment from the U.S. military.

Additionally, he served on the Delta County Drug Court, Communities that Care Coalition, helped created Escanaba Public Safety Citizen’s Academy, and was the point person for the “Escanaba Angel Program”. In 2021, Gudwer was again promoted to detective lieutenant, which included many of the same duties as lieutenant, as well as supervising the detective staff, school resource officer, two clerical staff, and two code enforcement officers and seven crossing guards.

In addition to the skills needed to perform the general police and fire duties of a sworn public safety officer, Gudwer is certified as a Firefighter Level I and II and is a fire instructor. He has earned many awards and certificates during his law enforcement career.

Gudwer is married with two children and two grandchildren.