CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — Marine Corps Veteran Andrew Bunce is the newest officer with the Toledo Police Department.

“Most people call me Andy.”

That’s how new Toledo Police Officer Andrew Bunce started the bio he had to write for the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA). The 47-year-old veteran is officially out on his own now, patrolling the community, after completing his field training.

Hailing from Cedar Rapids, Andy has ties to Tama-Toledo through his mother.

“My mom was a court reporter for the state of Iowa and worked mainly in the 6th District, which includes Tama/Toledo. She spent a fair amount of time in this area,” Andy said. “My Dad was a professional woodworker and stay-at-home-dad back in the 80s when it wasn’t a common thing to be so. He was also an elementary school teacher for a couple of years before he couldn’t stomach the internal politics of it anymore. My sister used to be a public school teacher also, and is currently working full time as an art teacher for the Marion Homeschool Association. My brother used to work with me at the nuclear power plant and is currently a rather successful self-published author with numerous titles to his name. My wife is from Israel, and I met her when I was doing ministry work over there in the winter of 2012/2013. We got married in September of 2013. We have two kids, a four-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter, whom my wife and I homeschool together.”

Family is a big part of Andy’s life. The time once spent on various hobbies has since gone by the wayside, as he became a father.

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“I mostly spend time with my wife and kids. We like going out to trails, riding bikes, and generally being outside,” Andy said.

A veteran of the Marine Corps, Andy enlisted right after getting out of high school in 1997.

“Not even a week after graduation, I went away to the Marine Corps, where I served in an active duty helicopter-borne rifle company in Camp Pendleton, completing two WESPAC sea-service deployments with the 15th and 13th Marine Expeditionary Units. My last deployment involved the force protection and recovery operation of the USS Cole in October 2000. After completing my service in the Marines in June 2001, I enlisted for a three-year enlistment with the Iowa Army National Guard. I was promoted to sergeant and completed a 6 month Multi-National Force & Observers deployment in Sinai, Egypt. It was on this deployment that I became a Christian,” he wrote in his ILEA bio.

Throughout the years, Andy worked many jobs, a lot of them security-related. Speaking from his own perspective on things as a private individual, Andy said, he got hired by Hy-Vee back in August 2022 as a retail security officer.

“Our original mission was to provide on-site security for stores, working alongside store management teams to accomplish this. While the program has been restructured over the years, our mission has remained the same and, in my opinion, has been very successful. I started out at the Cedar Rapids’ Oakland Rd. store on the NE side of town, and was there for two years. I currently work at the Johnson Avenue store in Cedar Rapids, and I’ve been there for a year. We handle a little bit of everything. Before that, I was a nuclear security officer at Duane Arnold Energy Center for 12 years,” he said. “I loved working there. And before that, I have done a lot of different kind of work. I did home health care, retail sales, and loss prevention work at various times, as well as operating my own photography business, which included doing contract photography work for some of the local colleges in Cedar Rapids for a couple of years before getting hired at the nuke plant. I was just willing to do different things in order to pay the bills.”

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After getting an associate’s degree in professional photography with a major in photojournalism, having a successful career in the military, and working several security jobs, Andy finally found his way to the police department. When asked what made him want to become an officer, Andy simply said, “Someone has to do it.”

He then talked about the decision.

“I’ve considered doing it for a while and figured it was now or never, considering my age. One of my big motivations is to stop people from hurting kids. That seems to be happening more and more these days,” he said.

Being a police officer isn’t just a job to Andy, but it’s something he enjoys as well.

“I love helping people. I know that is a cliche, but it is true for me. Yes, it’s a job, but I see it more as a ministry that I have been called to,” he said.

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In his ILEA bio, Andy summed things up in this way.

“We live in a society that is plagued with all kinds of problems; some self-imposed and some inflicted upon us by others. But in the end, it is up to us as citizens which direction we want to go as a society and community. To sum it up, I desire to stand in the gap for the benefit of my family and my community,” he wrote.

So, you’ll see him out there, on duty, waiting to help. Make sure to stop and say hello when you see him, but not just because he’s a veteran or the newest Toledo Police Officer. Stop and say hello because you know his name, it’s Andrew Bunce, but most people call him Andy.

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