Dan Breci is the police chief in Junction City.

Speaking to the Military Affairs Council breakfast Thursday, he talked about his law enforcement roots that go back to his late father, Sam Breci, in Omaha, Nebraska.

Dan said at about the age of eight his dad and other siblings lived in a house in Omaha, Nebraska. “The mafia required you pay protection and things like that, and his dad refused and they burned down his house. The four kids became orphaned, and my dad ended up living on the streets of Omaha selling newspapers.” At the age of 10 he was taken by police to Boys Town, Nebraska where he lived for the next 10 years.

Dan stated, “Up until that time I don’t think that he had any formal education, but he became the mayor, which is a boy-council type run government. And they invited J. Edgar Hoover to be their guest speaker.” It was a life changing event for Sam Breci. The next day he was taken to Washington D.C. and became a fingerprint technician for the FBI. He would earn a degree at Georgetown, and then a law degree at Creighton University, and in 1951 became an FBI agent where he served for 28 years.

Dan Breci’s mother was the third secretary to J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI building, two sisters and a brother have worked for the FBI, and another brother is a police officer. Breci graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2016 himself, when he became the first JCPD officer to attend the academy since 1983.

Breci is the 32nd police chief in the history of Junction City, and he reported that Wild Bill Hickok was the first. Hickok served as the city marshall.