William Battle, III
Staff Writer
Always smiling, cheerful and there to give students a ride to class or simply have a conversation. A man of the people. Those qualities immediately come to mind when you think of College Resource Officer Dagon Leach. Leach energizes students through his lively personality and charming smile, but behind that smile lies a harrowing past that forged the man students enjoy the guidance and protection of today.
Leach started in a rural neighborhood where he spent his childhood in a spacious five-acre yard surrounded by dogs, squirrels and opossums. However, this is where the fairy tale ends. He lacked stability in his relationship with his family. While he recalled maintaining a close relationship with his mother, his father was a different story.
“My mom was the only stable family member in my life…my brothers and sisters were all much older…I was almost like an only child,” said Leach. “My dad was a construction worker on the road doing ironwork … he was pretty much gone. At 12, [my mother and father] ended up getting divorced.”
At 12, Leach seemed to only know heartache and pain. While he remained close to his mother, he did not have an intimate relationship with his siblings due to their age difference. The only grandparent he became close to contracted lung cancer and passed. His closest cousin committed suicide, and loss seemingly followed him everywhere he went.
The devastation of losing any semblance of closeness he may have had with his family sent him into a vicious spiral, Leach said.
“I failed sixth grade three times,” he said. “[At] about sixteen I dropped out of school [with] no drive, no direction. [I] started staying up all night playing video games … eating bad food. I ended up in the realm of probably about 340 pounds.”
This unhealthy lifestyle deteriorated his outlook on life.
“I started to fall into a darkness in life … suicide was on the mind,” Leach said.
At about 16 years old, his mother intervened in the best way she knew by taking him on a trip to Manhattan for Christmas to experience the snow and to gain a new perspective. When he arrived, he had the opportunity to observe Ground Zero, the site of the terror attacks on September 11.
“We make a stop at Ground Zero … I put my fingers in the fence looking into these holes in the ground at the biggest attack that’s ever happened in America. They say there are a couple [of ]defining moments in your life where you really soul-search and determine what direction you’re really going to take. I knew the path I was on led to nothing for me…I [decided] when I got back, I would get my [life] together.”
For Leach, the horrible tragedy of 9/11 made him the man the community has come to know.
After visiting New York City, he started to work in the Police Explorers Program in Lakeland. As a prerequisite for eligibility into the program, he had to go to school. He enrolled in West Area Adult School in downtown Lakeland. In his first mock police call, the supervising officers said he handled it perfectly by the book, despite his only experience being watching “Cops” on television. Just like that, Leach found his niche.
“I never really was a part of anything really or was good at anything yet here they are giving me props [telling me], ‘You got this figured out’… I wasn’t good at school [or] considered myself super intelligent or brilliant but you use some common sense and thought, ‘Hey I might be able to do this.’
After that, soon-to-be Officer Leach did not look back. Once he finished his tenure at West Area Adult School, he earned his GED. Soon after, he became a patrol officer within the Lakeland Police Department. His unique experiences growing up gave him the tools and ethos to protect and serve in a way that other officers of the law could not.
“Even from going through that darkness… that’s why I think that I have such an incredible appreciation for life now,” said Leach. “I know what it’s like in the darkness and what it’s like to come into the light.”
However, it is that makes Leach different goes even further than the trials he endured. He has a philosophy on the job.
“Treat people how you’d want them to treat your family.”
That standard he holds himself to causes his level of service to come across as more sincere and allows him to personalize the assistance he provides to each individual. A golden illustration of this comes through common interactions Leach had as a patrol officer.
“There are many times I would show up on a scene, and people would be like, ‘I don’t like the police but I’ll talk to you.’”
He was different.
Leach loved being a patrol officer. So when the school resource officer sergeant asked Leach to overlook Lakeland High School, he was reluctant. His supervisors wanted the fiery personality and the unique connection he had garnered with the community brought directly into the schools.
The sergeant requested he switch when societal tensions between citizens and the police sat at an all-time high in 2016. Leach loved his patrol job but eventually caved, deciding to give the high school a chance. He settled in quickly and before he knew it, in just two short months he had forged bonds so tight with the students that he could not leave even if he wanted to.
“I hit the campus and … built relationships. Sure enough, after those couple [of] months, Finney says I can’t move you…if I move you these kids are gonna protest,” Leach explained.
That began the legacy Leach has built for himself and the police department among this generation of young people in Lakeland.
Eventually, family is what drew Leach over to Florida Southern. Around 2020, FSC began hiring full-time police coverage around the time Leach met his wife. With a baby on the way, he wanted to spend more time with his family, and FSC presented an opportunity that gave him just that.
“At the high school, my schedule is 6:30 in the morning till 3:30 in the afternoon…but it was Monday through Friday…it got to the point where Florida Southern was driving in the direction of 24-hour police coverage,” Leach said. “[They] mentioned to me that they were [offering] 12-hour rotating shifts…I [realized that I] need[ed] to make the decision for my family now. I can’t just think of the school per se. I made the decision to hop over here.”
Leach has another mantra that he lives by in the force and in everyday life: “Don’t just make a difference, be the difference.”
He backs this up with his voice and his actions. When his father whom he never truly bonded with needed help, he swallowed his pride and went to him.
“My dad ended up coming down with dementia and getting stuck in a nursing home…the nursing home reached out to me and said there was no one else…I realized that at the end of the day… you have to be thankful…from the [bad I experienced with my father] I learned what kind of dad I wanted to be,” Leach said.
Rather than choosing to remain bitter, Leach took the difficult road and chose to take care of his father the best he could during his final days. He chose to live in the present and future to make a difference. Whether that is making a different choice, choosing a different reaction, or choosing kindness over revenge, Leach did that.
And he continues to do that at FSC every day. He sets the example as a new father of a three-month-old. He sets the example as a husband and family man. He advocates for students on campus who know he is there not just to enforce the law, but to change lives, too.
