Sgt. Steve Parker Celebrates 5,000th Appearance as McGruff

Sgt. Steve Parker of the Crime Prevention Unit of the Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office in Burlington, IA, remembers the first day he saw an animated dog in a trench coat urging TV viewers to “Take A Bite Out Of Crime®.”  “This is cool,” he thought. He wondered what it would be like to make a costume out of the character he saw on TV. He brought the idea up with the sheriff. The sheriff’s first reaction was, “What?” But Sgt. Parker, who had been trained as a ventriloquist since he was 10 years old, persuaded him that it would be a good idea. “If you can make it work,” said the Sheriff, “go ahead!”

So, he bought a trench coat from JC Penney and, with the help of Ruth Donald from the Des Moines County Police Department, created the first McGruff costume with a head made of papier-mâché covered in brown terry cloth. In November 1980, McGruff the Crime Dog® made his first public appearance at a Neighborhood Watch event in Des Moines County, IA.

Sgt. Parker has come a long way from appearing in a papier-mache costume. This year, Sgt. Parker made his 5,000th appearance as McGruff at the Iowa Crime Prevention Association’s annual conference, where he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in Crime Prevention. He has taken McGruff’s messages of crime prevention to many states across the nation and even as far as New Zealand, though most of his appearances have been local.

He’s spent almost half of his life connecting with communities as McGruff and loves doing it. “One of the nicest honors you can ever receive is to get a chance to be able to portray McGruff,” he says. Adults and kids alike come up to McGruff to hug him, shake hands, high five, or, as is more often the case these days, bump fists. Parents often recognize McGruff before their kids do and come up to tell him about meeting McGruff when they were young. It gives Parker a warm, fuzzy feeling to be part of such a worldwide crime prevention team.

“The minute that head goes on,” says Parker, “I’m not Steven Parker anymore, I’m McGruff the Crime Dog. I feel like McGruff the Crime Dog when I put it on. If you have the magic, the personification will follow. It’s one of the most rewarding things you can do. I encourage anyone to try it just once.”

Parker has used McGruff to talk about a host of crime prevention issues. In the early days, the focus was Neighborhood Watch. In the mid-‘80s, he spent a lot of time as McGruff promoting the Users Are Losers program. He’s also portrayed McGruff for the Teens, Crime, and the Community initiative, and for such safety messages as promoting bike safety, antivandalism, and stranger danger. Parker has had the opportunity to appear as McGruff in parades, on a fire truck with Sparky the Fire Dog and Smokey the Bear, and for the Buckle Up America campaign with the crash-test dummies Vince and Larry. He has thrown the first pitch at baseball games, rung the bell at NASDAQ, and appeared on several morning television news programs as McGruff.

Parker has found that McGruff is beloved by Americans of all ages. Parker recalls a grandfather who approached him saying, “Do you know how effective you are as McGruff?” The man went on to tell Parker that while looking after their granddaughter one day, his wife collapsed. Their granddaughter immediately called 9-1-1. When asked how she knew to call 9-1-1, she said that McGruff told her how to do it.

Sometimes Parker uses the McGruff puppet with younger children, which gives him a chance to use his ventriloquist training. He finds that younger children respond well to the McGruff puppet, although high schoolers love it too. Parker says that kids are more likely to remember something said by McGruff than by him.

Sgt. Parker had a few tips on portraying McGruff.
 

• Know your audience.
  
• Dress in private.
  
• Know your own limitations regarding how long you can actually wear the costume as it gets very hot.
  
• Try not to operate a car or machinery while wearing the costume as vision is limited.
  
• Keep your space with very young children who may be intimidated or may cry; a wave may be sufficient until they see other children approach McGruff.
  
• Most important, ask an escort to guide you so that you don’t trip or fall down steps; vision is limited.

What Sgt. Parker likes most about portraying McGruff is being able to make a difference in making our communities safer. Parker recalls one time when he made such a difference to a young boy named Brian in Dyersville, IA. Brian was sick with leukemia and had recently undergone a bone-marrow transplantation. The treatment had been hard on the boy and doctors recalled that he didn’t smile much. Dressed as McGruff, Parker went to visit Brian in the hospital. McGruff took a badge from his trench coat and presented it to Brian, who was thrilled. Parker was careful never to wear a similar pin again. When Brian took a turn for the worse a few days later, the hospital called the Des Moines County Sheriff’s office and asked if McGruff could send him a comic book or letter to cheer him up. The Sheriff drove Parker down to the hospital himself. When McGruff came into Brian’s room wearing a hospital gown and a mask, Brian beamed. Doctors said that it was the first emotion Brian had shown all day and later reported that he was starting to get better. Brian’s father had not been a fan of police officers, but he was so touched that they would come all the way out to Iowa City see his son that his attitude changed. Brian eventually lost his fight with leukemia and he was buried with the badge McGruff had given him.

Parker has received many honors for his work promoting crime prevention messages while portraying McGruff. One of his favorites was meeting Jack Kiel, the official voice and creator of McGruff the Crime Dog. In 2005, Parker was picked to succeed Kiel in the Next McGruff Voice contest at the 7th National Conference on Preventing Crime in Washington, DC. Parker also won the Iowa Crime Prevention Practitioner of the Year award earlier this year.

For Sgt. Parker, being able to portray McGruff is one of the most rewarding things he’s ever done. “I can’t thank NCPC enough that someone had a vision to take a mascot and turn it into a national icon,” he says. “It’s taught me that we can really make a difference in our communities.” Parker says he plans on portraying McGruff well into his own retirement. “I never get tired of being McGruff,” he says.