Travis Nissen remembered warmly by Miller students, fellow officers

“There are young guys who work here who never had loss — it was very difficult for these men,” Taggard said.

Shift supervisor Sgt. James Kilfoyle described Nissen as a friendly, perpetually smiling face that was eager to help anyone, always asking, “Do you need anything?”

Dispatcher Katie Robinson said that Nissen would always go out of his way for her, checking on her throughout her shift, delivering coffee or offering a break — even booting her to man the phones to entertain himself at times. “[Nissen] was, in a nutshell, a sweet, hilarious guy.”  Robinson said that they would often stick him with the “ridiculous” calls because he could be counted on to show up with a broad smile and do his job.

Assigned to school halls

Taggard said Nissen was at first reticent about being assigned to be an SRO until he spent a few days at the school feeling it out, and realized that the kids looked up to him and respected him.  Nissen found in the halls of Miller his niche. “It didn’t take long for him to love that job. He didn’t want to leave.” Taggard concurred with Kilfoyle that Nissen cast a warm smile that made kids want to know him, and described Nissen as “very personable with a genuine interest in the people around him.”

“He made it a safe place for kids to go to school and it would continue to be safe thanks to the ground work he laid. I like to think he opened the doorways for kids to walk through to law enforcement,” Taggard said. “He cannot be replaced — he can only be succeeded.”

There were students who couldn’t afford haircuts, Taggard disclosed, and so Nissen would cut their hair into a “high and tight” for free. “There was nothing these kids wouldn’t come to him for.” Taggard said that one of Nissen’s greatest strengths was as a “peace-maker,” which was largely evidenced by the outpouring of sentiments by Miller students, families and faculty thanking Nissen for his interventions in their lives or the lives of friends.

One student wrote a letter to Nissen to thank him for turning him away from joining a gang. Eighth-grader Thomas McGowan said Nissen intervened on his behalf when a kid bumped into him in the hallway on purpose. McGowan said that Nissen was plugged into his extracurricular life and antics, and schooled him on the perils of Facebook fighting. “Whatever you write down is found,” warned Nissen. McGowan enjoyed Nissen’s endless stream of jokes and puns.