Then and Now: Carr changes careers, in police work in Kansas

At age 51, Patrick Carr swapped a thriving business for a patrol car.  Carr’s epiphany came in 2017 when he was president and owner of Broadway Screen Printing and Embroidery in Siloam Springs. One day he looked at his wife and said, “I want to be a cop.”

“It’s been a great career change for me,” he said.

Discounting the idea that he might be too old or out of shape, he applied to the Siloam Springs Police Department and went through the police academy.

“I laugh and tell people I had a midlife crisis at 50. It’s been the joke, but there’s probably some truth to it. What sane 50-year-old man – 51 by that time – decides he wants to go through military-style academy and do defensive tactics and get beat on?”

After a couple of years with the Siloam Springs Police Department, a friend with the McPherson, Kan., Police Department offered Carr a job. Quickly moving up to detective, he “worked all kinds of cases: everything from child abuse to child pornography, embezzlement, rape cases. You name it.”

Last year Carr became sergeant over professional standards and training.

“Now I’m not out chasing bad guys, but I’m teaching people how to do it and providing the best training we can,” he said. “The more training we can give them, not only the better job they can do, and the more job satisfaction and fulfillment they receive, but also the better our citizens are protected. A smart cop can do things way better.”

From Richmond, Va., Carr founded Integrated Solutions in Atlanta in 1990, billing more than $1 million annually to high-profile clients such as Coca-Cola and American Megatrends Inc. Wanting to raise their children in a small town, he and his wife relocated to Siloam Springs where Carr was director of graphic arts services for John Brown University. He was in that position in 2000 when he was named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class.

Over the years, Carr invested in Siloam Springs, serving on the city board and planning commission, and as a Benton County Quorum Court justice of the peace. Foreshadowing his police career, he served on public safety committees, such as fire, rescue and law enforcement. He also owned several restaurants but found his stride with Broadway Screen Printing and Embroidery, doubling the business in 10 years.

Since moving to Kansas, Carr has finished his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and his master’s degree in strategic leadership at Central Christian College of Kansas, maintaining a 4.0 GPA in both degrees and graduating first in his class. Carr teaches at the college as the only on-campus adjunct criminal justice professor.

“That allows me to get these young students and teach them more than they’re getting from textbooks. I give them real-world examples of how law enforcement actually works, versus ‘this is what you do.’”

Money isn’t a driving factor for him, Carr said.

“What drives me is experiences. I like experiences. I like to be able to do things. I spent 10 days in Africa, in the Tenere Desert, back in 2006, doing meteorite research. There’s never a bad skill or experience. You learn something, and you never know when you’re going to use it in the future.”

In keeping with that, his philosophy is “do something,” he said. “It seems simple, but how many people sit around and wait for things to happen? People gravitate to those who do things. Be willing to talk to people. I’ve had some phenomenal experiences in my life and met some wonderful people just because I was willing to say, ‘How are you?’”

A longtime member of the masonic fraternity, Carr is the most excellent grand high priest of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Kansas. He is a candidate for the General Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons International. He’s published a book on his masonic experience in leadership and lectures all over the world on leadership.

Carr serves on the Heart to Heart Children’s Advocacy Center board and is a trustee for the Kansas Masonic Foundation.