Jake Sparks — Instructor Profile

About Jake Sparks

Captain Sparks began his career with the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office in 1999, after graduating from Grand Valley State University with a B.A. in Criminal Justice. In 2003, he was selected as Deputy of the Year for his contributions to Community Policing. In 2006, Sparks was assigned to a Michigan State Police undercover narcotics taskforce. His time with the taskforce included street level drug and gang crime, but primarily involved interdiction and conspiracy investigations, working closely with Federal law enforcement to disrupt high level drug traffickers. Sparks was promoted to Detective in 2009 and has extensive experience investigating sexual assaults, robberies, homicides, and other major crimes, while also spending two years assigned to the Cold Case Team, investigating unsolved homicides. In 2017, Sparks was promoted to Detective Sergeant and later, Services Captain, overseeing numerous Community Policing initiatives, and the School Resource program. In February of 2018, Sparks was presented with the Distinguished Law Enforcement Service Award, after negotiating the surrender of an armed individual threatening police. Captain Sparks has also supervised the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office Crisis Negotiation Team since 2019. In 2021, Sparks returned to the Investigative Services Unit, where he currently leads the Detective Bureau.