Charlie Jones was First Black NPD Officer, a Well-Loved Public Servant

Charlie Jones was a public servant who loved his community. And everybody who knew him loved him.

He was the first black police officer to work for the City of Noblesville, hired at the Noblesville Police Department on Jan. 1, 1971.

“For over four decades, Charlie was a humble and dedicated public servant who touched the lives of countless residents and fellow officers. Our sincere thoughts and prayers are with the Jones’ family,” NPD posted in a statement on Facebook this week.

Charlie Jones’ oldest son, Mark Jones, who the community knows as the roller-skating Uncle Sam every year at the Noblesville Fourth of July Parade, on Monday afternoon wore a black sash, with his dad’s Noblesville Police badge, and a black elastic ribbon over it, in honor of his dad, who passed away on that very morning of July 4. Charlie Jones was 84.

Mark Jones said his dad always worked during the Noblesville Parade at one of the street corners making sure everybody was safe.

“Dad loved the community and always wanted to be in the community. That’s where I got my life skills from,” said Mark Jones, 60, Noblesville, a 1980 NHS grad, during an interview Wednesday afternoon, when I caught up with him at the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville, where he used to go as a kid after school.

“He always worked hard … One job wasn’t enough, and he would have two and possibly three — just to make ends meet, to always be working. That was something that he instilled in us, in our family. Work hard, and you could get to where you needed to be. I’ve worked four jobs myself at a time, and my son and my daughter (work, too), so his grandkids are picking up that legacy. They know that working hard makes you feel good about life.”

Charlie Jones Jr. was named after his grandpa. Born in Indianapolis on March 5, 1938, his mother died when he was young. So he was raised by his Uncle and Aunt Sam and Pauline (Field) Sublett. (Pauline’s birthday was on July 4.)

“He was a little ornery growing up,” Mark Jones said, telling a story. “My grandpa (who worked third shift at the gas company) used to have to sit with him (Charlie) in class (at school) to make him behave.”

Charlie Jones graduated from Cathedral High School in 1955. He served in the U.S. Air Force. He came to Noblesville in 1959. Then he got married in 1960 to Constance (Holman) Jones. (Interestingly, Mark’s mother, and Melinda’s mother, Jackie Haskett, knew each other at NHS.) At age 24, Charlie Jones started having kids, Mark, born in 1961; Alicia, born in 1962; and David, born in 1963. “So that started the Jones legacy,” Mark Jones said.

To support his family, Charlie Jones worked multiple jobs, making castings at Noblesville Foundry (ID Castings), changing tires part time at Quality Farm & Fleet (now Tractor Supply) and working at Curtis-Dyna, maker of professional insect-control foggers in Westfield.

But by about 1967-68, he decided he wanted to be a police officer. He was on the NPD Reserves for a while, then he went to Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield and graduated in 1970.

“We have a picture of him in the graduating class from the Academy. Your dad is the only black person in the picture who had graduated,” said Melinda Jones, who sat in with her husband, Mark, during this interview.

Then in 1971, Charlie Jones was hired as the first black police officer in Noblesville, and racial barriers were broken.

The City (which had a population of just less than 8,000, according to Stats Indiana, the state’s public data utility) had never hired a person of color before. “They didn’t need any people of color on their police force (since Noblesville was incorporated in 1851) and didn’t need any now,” according to the then Noblesville City Council, Mark Jones recalled history.

Melinda Jones, who also grew up in Noblesville and is a 1975 NHS grad, said, “There was more of a discontent in City Hall than with the people living in the community, because everybody knew him.”

And while some people saw Charlie Jones as someone different than themselves, Charlie didn’t see a difference in people. “He had no uncomfortable zone,” Melinda Jones said.

That’s part of what made Charlie Jones a good public servant.

“He just loved people. He loved the community. He loved to talk, when he did talk. He didn’t talk very often. He loved Noblesville and wanted to keep everybody safe. He knew everybody in town,” Mark Jones said.

Charlie Jones worked under 11 Noblesville police chiefs from 1971 to 2014. He was hired on NPD under police chief Joseph Bay (Aug. 1, 1967-May 2, 1974). He then worked under NPD chief Ralph McMillan (May 3, 1974-Dec. 31, 1975), Robert Bever (Jan. 1, 1976-May 18, 1979), Lynn Gang (May 19, 1979-Jan. 31, 1980), Norris Cook (Feb. 1, 1980-April 13, 1984); Tim Garner, (April 14, 1984-July 14, 1984); David Crose (July 15, 1984-Dec. 1, 1988), Tim Garner (Dec. 2, 1988-Aug. 31, 1995); Michael Robbins (Sept. 1, 1995-Dec. 31, 1995); Dick Russell (Jan. 1, 1996-Jan. 30, 2009); Curtis Kinman (Jan. 31, 2009-May 25, 2009); Kevin Jowitt (May 26, 2009-Dec. 31, 2019).

Mark Jones said, “Dad spent 30 years on the Noblesville Police Department working his way up from patrolman to lieutenant. (During the first year of his career, he worked security in 1971 for the KKK march through Noblesville.)

But he found out he loved the kids of this town so much that he became a juvenile officer but had to take a drop in rank to get that. He was a juvenile officer for years, knew everybody in town and knew where everybody lived.”

Being an ornery kid himself, he understood kids who got into trouble, and “why they were doing what they did.”

Mark Jones said being a police officer’s son, he learned a lot. “I can remember when he brought the suitcase home, the patrolman’s suitcase that had every drug known to man, paraphernalia of the period of the ‘70s, and he just kind of flipped it up, and said, ‘All of this, you stay away from; it’s not good.’” His dad lit up marijuana, and said, “If you smell this anywhere, you better go the other way, because it’s not good.” Charlie Jones told his son, “I’m going to become a police officer in Noblesville, and please do not do anything to tarnish my name. If you do something bad, and I know you’ve done it, I’m not helping you. If somebody says you did something bad and you didn’t do it, I’ll help you out. Those were the words of wisdom from my dad.”

Mark Jones said his dad gave a lot of warnings, and wouldn’t take you to jail unless it was the last straw. “He gave a lot of people a lot of chances.”

Charlie Jones, before retiring, went back into patrol work and was often seen sitting in his patrol car along Eighth Street clocking radar and writing speeding tickets.

He retired March 7, 1997, but continued his career as a Community Service Officer for the City until he fully retired from the force in January 2014.

“The City came to him and said, ‘Hey Charlie, we’re starting this new division; it’s called Community Service Officer. It’s everything a police officer would do without arresting powers.’” He would flag traffic at car accidents, catch dogs and help with flat tires. “‘If there was something to do, he did it. If there was nothing to do, he didn’t do it.’ That was his quote,” Mark Jones said of his dad, who held the Community Service Officer job for 16 years.

“He wanted to go 50 years working for the City of Noblesville, because he loved the community, loved the people,” Mark Jones said.

His dad stayed busy. “He loved to help out any way he could … He always worked two or three jobs,” Mark Jones said.

While Charlie Jones was a police officer, he also operated Noblesville Cab Co. “We were the Noblesville Cab Co., me (at age 21) and my brother (David, then 19) and my dad…,” Mark Jones said (referring to a Noblesville Ledger newspaper article from 1982). “When we had the cab service, there was no cab service in Noblesville.”

He told his kids, “Hey guys, I’ve got a job for you. I’m buying a car and we’re going to turn it into Noblesville Cab Co. and try to help out the community,” Mark Jones said. “He was always wanting to help out.”

Charlie Jones also worked security for Walmart, and he worked security for Shorewood Corp., when South Harbour was just getting built, and kit home packages that were dropped during the day would be stolen at night.

When he wasn’t working, which wasn’t often, he loved pool, NASCAR racing, fishing and hunting, and watching wrestling and hanging out with wrestlers, including Dick the Bruiser, at the Eighth Street Bar.

Mark Jones said his dad not only taught him work ethics and how to treat others, but also how to fish and how to swim (after many times getting too close to the banks of the White River). He grew up attending church with his family at the First Baptist Church at Fifth and Cherry streets, the oldest black Baptist church in Hamilton County and now the home of Hamilton County Artists’ Association Birdie Gallery. And Mark and his dad both made a lot of great memories in Boy Scouts, at the Pinewood Derby “was a great time with Dad,” and trips to Louisville, the Falls of Ohio and a ride on the Belle of Louisville with Noblesville Troop 105, and at a cold, winter campout. Charlie Jones was a proud volunteer dad with the troop, and proud of his son, who reached First Class Scout, which means he learned all of the basic camping and outdoor skills.

The Charlie Jones Hustle award was also given out when he started raising funds and organizing bowling tournaments for Prevail, Hamilton County’s victims’ assistance group.

Mark and Melinda Jones said he was always doing something for the community. “He was going to do his best for the world.”

Besides Mark and Melinda Jones, Alicia Jones and David Jones, among the other survivors are wife, Sheila Kay Jones; and children, Regina (Michael) Mack, and Brandon (Heather) Jones; a brother and sister, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at Randall & Roberts Funeral Center on Westfield Road in Noblesville, with services at 11 a.m. Monday, with Pastor Phil Tate officiating. Burial will be in Crownland Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Prevail.

– Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.