Mitchell Melot grew up in the Quarryville area and graduated from Solanco, but before he started serving his hometown, he prepped concert equipment for the likes of Beyonce, Maroon 5, Metallica, and more for a handful of years.

“Those were some of our bigger clients,” Melot said. “Firefly Music Festival was one of our main gigs that we would send a bunch of lights to. That was my big job before becoming an officer.”

Melot worked as a lighting tech for Main Light Industries, a concert-prepping business in Wilmington, Del., before COVID-19 hit; that caused him to start thinking about what career he wanted to pursue.

“I came home and went to the Delaware County Police Academy,” Melot said. “I grew up out here, so I started looking for jobs out this way because it's home to me. Quarryville popped up and everything laid out from there.”

Becoming a police officer was always in the back of his mind and now Melot – who has been an officer for roughly a year and a half – has the luxury of taking a short five-minute ride into work rather than all the travel and commute his previous job entailed.

Melot moved from Delaware County to Quarryville when he was a kid and has been in the area for nearly 20 years; the countryside and tight-knit community are two big reasons why he enjoys serving the jurisdiction.

“Just getting out there and helping people, which is kind of what they all say,” Melot said about why he wanted to become a police officer. “But it really is about helping people in the community. It’s all about how you start a conversation and how you come up onto the scene. I didn't really necessarily have a driving factor. It all kind of just fell in the right place and I wouldn't look back on doing it.”

Melot has been learning from the more experienced officers in Quarryville’s department, taking pieces from each as he develops his own path.

“The trainings that we get to pick honestly are my favorite thing because you get to kind of build your skill level and what your expertise is,” he said. “We have an officer in here on the SWAT team. Another guy he's a drug expert, so I'm just pulling from both. Officer [Cheryl] Thompson is great. She's a retail theft expert. Chief [Rick Beighly] was a Lancaster City PD cop for so many years. I'm just learning everything from them.”

Melot said Chief Beighly has been encouraging him to take an abundance of trainings and find out what niche interests him the most. He’s taken courses in advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement and active-shooter training and mentioned the tactical side of SWAT and drug work as potential interests down the road.

He’s focusing on become as well-rounded as possible and continuing to get himself out into the community, where he already knows many people.

“My favorite thing is getting out and talking to people in the community,” he said. “I went to school here. I know a lot of the community. I like to go and see the kids. We have two school resource officers so I kind of bounce off them for information. It's almost like a networking system.”

Melot understands the stressors of his job in law enforcement may differ from those in the entertainment industry and has healthy mechanisms in place to deal with that stress including possessing a second-degree black belt in karate.

“I like to stay fit, run, workout,” he said. “I enjoy mixed martial arts, racing motocross. That's another misconception that cops are uptight. I like to race dirt bikes and get out even if I’m not out on the street popping wheelies. I like to go out and do stuff with my family and friends. It’s not just being a cop all the time. We need to get away from it at times.”

Melot is early in his career as a police officer and already feels like he’s made the right choice; his only regret is that he didn’t get into law enforcement sooner.

“If you're young and healthy and you want to get into a career, do it,” he said. “Even though I’m still young, instead of bouncing around from jobs and trying to figure out what you want to do, maybe get into something that interests you right away. I wouldn't trade it. There are so many different possibilities. You can advance to the state police where there’s a helicopter unit and DNA research unit. You could become sergeant or chief at a local department. The technology is growing so quickly. I would say don’t wait, get into it, start learning, and then you can just grow from there.”

MEDIA CONTACT: Sean McBryan, semcbryan@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @SeanMcBryanLanc.