Our Hero of the Week is Patrolman First Class Jeff Gilpin of the Havre de Grace Police Department.

Gilpin, 28, is a community resource officer and the public information officer for the police. He joined the police force after serving in the military, with deployments in various countries in the Middle East and Africa. Gilpin and his wife had their first child, a boy, earlier this year.

Patch: What do you enjoy most about your job?

Gilpin: Its something different everyday. You get to meet new people. You get to do something different. Although, say you get a call for an assault, an assault call is an assault call, but the circumstances are always different. No matter what, it's always different, which is fun.

Patch: What is something the public doesn't understand about your job?

Gilpin: A lot of time the public perceives us, I don't want to say as the bad guys. But when you think of a fire fighter, everyone loves a fire fighter because they run into a burning building and rescue you. When you think of a police officer, they're thinking speeding ticket. The hardest thing is for them to understand, we're people to. And we will help you as much as you can. People are leery of us, but the biggest thing is, I want them to be able to open up to us, talk to us.

Patch: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

Gilpin: You could always get into officer safety, your own personal safety. But I'd say the most difficult sometimes is relaying to the citizens what we can do, what we can't do. It's trying to help them the best we can, but staying within our boundaries of what we're allowed to do.

Patch: What do you like to do when you're not working?

Gilpin: Family time. I love family time. I used to ride sport bikes, but I sold it. I love spending family time, movie time, and I'm a huge gun nut. I have firearms, love to go to the range.

Patch: What is on your iPod?

Gilpin: When I do use my iPod, I like a lot of acoustic. Dave Matthews, Saving Abel. I don't want to say mellow, but more laid-back. I don't like studio-produced stuff. I like it live. You can really hear the talent then.

Patch: What are your favorite movies?

Gilpin: I can go in order: Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, Blackhawk Down. I like a lot of the military type of movies, since that's kind of my background.

Patch: What makes Havre de Grace so unique?

Gilpin: I would say the fact that it is a huge melting pot. Almost on a daily basis you run into somebody from a different area. I just think that's very unique.

To nominate a local hero, e-mail our editor at sean.welsh@patch.com