It was quite a wild ride, but I have left sworn law enforcement behind. After 33 years of service, I retired as a Major from my first police department. The very next day, I joined a smaller agency and served four years as a Captain before leaving the profession…uh, lifestyle.
It was time. You don’t want to stay too long at the party. Dinosaurs, like draft animals, need to be put out to pasture. I was brought up on the spit and polish of a squared-away uniform. When outer vests (MOLLE festooned with trinkets), full beards, and sleeve tattoos are the order of the day, old dogs need to move aside.
I served in FTO, K9, SWAT, Detective Division while an officer. Later, I supervised these sections as a Sergeant. In my waning years, I was a Lieutenant and the Commander for each unit before being voluntold into Internal Affairs, Accreditation, and Training. I was also the Public Information Officer for four years and gave grave press conferences.
At the end, I was the Administrative Major overseeing support personnel (so valued) and a 26-million-dollar budget. A far cry from being a grunt K9 handler with dog chasing (and catching) felony suspects in the dark of night.
Upon retirement, I was reborn at a much smaller agency, where I assumed the duties of Captain and, by default, Deputy Chief of Police. A new challenge ensued as I modernized an archaic infrastructure. This required rewriting policies, bringing in mandatory training, and achieving the department’s new state accreditation compliance.
I was an admin guy still in an operations job, pulling traffic stops, backing on calls, assisting detectives in routine cases, and still wearing body armor every shift. When would it be time to pull the plug? Fate intervened and made the decision an easy one.
I had a health scare. Enough to make me rethink the requirements of my job. Nearly forty years of high stress and being on 24-hour callout had taken a toll. Though I am over sixty years young, it’s not the age, it’s the mileage. A good day is one without ibuprofen.
Regardless of the agency, LE is the same. People hurt other people. We can only try to hold the bad ones accountable. The justice system is not perfect. It is more complicated than it appears. But it is important to remember that after the probable cause and arrest, it is out of our hands and into those of the lawyers, judges, and juries.
So, I am adjusting to retirement. It is not as simple as one would image. When you adopt a persona for decades, it is difficult to shake off the mantle. I’ll probably write a post-mortem on the ups and downs of not working at some point, but for now I am enjoying feathering the brakes. Stay safe all.
Randall
