He may be one of a kind in his love for work in the traffic division, but he said he has always been interested in dealing with the traffic side of the department, preferring to pass up pursuing work as a detective after a short stint in that work.
“At one point, (former police chief) Steve Schwein planned to make me second shift detective sergeant. I never saw anything nice about being a detective. I never liked detective work,” he said. “I like crashes and investigating the scene. Nobody likes traffic. I prefer to do a good crash. It’s the same venue — investigation.”
Those crash investigations and scenes often came with a difficult responsibility.
“(W)hat I will always recall as the most significant attributes about Tom is the way he handled family members of young people who lost their lives tragically,” Acting Oxford Police Chief John Jones said. “It was the job no one wanted, but Tom handled it with the utmost respect and dignity and always seemed to know what to say and how to say it.”
Horvath joined the department in 1982. He was promoted to sergeant in 1997 and to lieutenant in 2008.
During his 34-year tenure, he served as patrol officer, traffic officer, patrol sergeant and Special Response Team Commander. Horvath was also named the first director of Law Camp.
“Twenty-plus years later, the program is going strong in large part due to his contributions, not only in the beginning, but every year thereafter,” Jones said.
Candace Keller, a police dispatcher who has recently served as director of Law Camp, presented Horvath with a certificate in honor of his contributions to the annual program that exposes youth to local law enforcement operations.
“Tom’s fingerprints are all over Law Camp. He loves the kids and always had ideas to make things better,” she said, adding that he continued to be involved in the program after stepping down as director.
“I appreciate his dedication for 22 years to Law Camp,” Keller said. “He has an impact on the lives of over 2,000 children.”
Horvath was also a member of the department’s Bike Patrol unit, which included officers cycling throughout the city and interacting with residents to make policing more personal. He also took part in competitions with other departments’ bike patrols.
“They paid me to train at Hueston Woods,” he recalled with a smile. “There was a mountain bike trail there and I trained for a mountain bike event, which I won. It was crazy. I was paid to ride a bike on a beautiful day.”
Horvath plans to spend more time with his family, especially his grandson, now that he is retired.
“I’m going to stay in Oxford and, hopefully, drive my wife to work,” he said, although he does plan on a part-time position with the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, serving papers and other jobs a few days a week.
His main focus, however, will be spending time with his 20-month-old grandson Tommy, he said.
“Big T and Little T,” he said. “We have a ball.”
For Horvath, the best memories he takes into retirement are those involving the people he served.
“This is a wonderful town to be a cop in. A small town forces you to be a good person, by the interaction with people in the community because the next day you will be in Kroger getting a gallon of milk with them,” he said. “In a small town, you get to wear a lot of hats. I remember lighting a woman’s pilot light on her water heater. I remember chasing a bat out of someone’s home. In a big department, they would not even send someone to calls like that.”
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