Has police work changed since the current crop of retirees - Tim Fitzwater, John Atchley, Dave Chaput and Liz Leopold - began working in the late 1970s?

In separate interviews, they all told of changes, but Fitzwater said basic police work remains the same. Then and now, investigating crime involves talking to people to get the information you need, he said.

Crime

However, Fitzwater said, LPD had as many officers in 1978 as it does now, but the work load has increased. The big struggle for Lebanon police now is manpower.

&#8220There's only so many hours in the day," he said. &#8220They're doing things more efficiently but they just can't keep up."

Officers who once focused on traffic patrol now go from one call to the next without much time for investigations, Fitzwater and Atchley said.

&#8220The town is absolutely booming and the officers are like little ping pong balls, popping from one call to the next," Fitzwater said.

Many of the cases they handle are domestic violence, truancy and child abuse, Atchley said.

Detectives also carry a heavier caseload and have to pick and choose what to investigate, which Fitzwater called &#8220unfortunate." Their job also has become more specialized. To work on cases involving child abuse and sex abuse, officers need a lot of training. It's the same with driving under the influence of intoxicants.

&#8220[DUII cases] used to be fairly straight forward," Fitzwater said. &#8220Back then it was .15 for legally over the limit. It's half of that now. There were a lot more drunks back then. They had to be pretty sloshed to get convicted."

As for drugs, they've always been around, the retirees said, but not to the extent they are now. Meth has become cheaper and more addictive, and is connected to thefts.

&#8220These people (meth addicts) don't work," Atchley said. &#8220They can't hold a job. Lots are dropouts, and homeless. They have to feed their meth habit somehow."

&#8220Marijuana was more of a big deal then because there weren't all the loopholes in the law there are now," Fitzwater said, referring to medical marijuana and possession of less than an ounce laws.

He would prefer that marijuana either be illegal or not.

Atchley said society and morals have deteriorated since the 1970s. More single-parent families and a mom whose children have multiple fathers means a lack of support for kids, he said. Homelessness wasn't much of a problem 27 years ago. Nor were gangs. Now Albany has juvenile gangs and Lebanon is beginning to see signs of them.

Leopold remembers that police in the past were more physical in handling situations such as bar fights.

&#8220I remember Friday and Saturday nights those guys would have to put on old riot helmets because we had just horrible bar fights downtown. There were bodies flying over cars, just like the movies. I would just be chewing my nails until I knew everybody was OK."

Now much more of police work seems to be dealt with on a more intellectual level, she said.

&#8220Bar fights are a good example. Officers are able to calm situations down with intelligence and verbal skills," she said. &#8220You very rarely hear of them having to be physical any more. It's all a matter of training. There's less need for use of force because of their negotiating skills."

Leopold likes tasers, which she called &#8220wonderful inventions. They save everybody from getting hurt."

Unlike the old days, now when Lebanon police are involved in a critical incident it usually means guns. &#8220It really didn't so much before," she said. &#8220Now there's less rough and tumble business, but it's elevated to a more dangerous situation."

Punishment

Punishment for criminal activity is different these days too. What people once got sent to jail for now rates a citation, Atchley said.

Once shoplifters were jailed for 30 days. Now they often don't even pay fines, but do community service or time on the work crew, he said.

&#8220When I started in police work, especially my first time in detectives in 1984, I can remember putting people in the penitentiary for car thefts. Now it's a class C Felony," Fitzwater said.

Forgers also went to prison. Now forgery is a misdemeanor.

Car thieves used to get jail time for the first theft. In recent years, Fitzwater has seen repeat offenders who had stolen four or five vehicles without seeing the inside of a jail cell.

&#8220There's just no room at the inn," he said of the state's prison system. &#8220They're just full."

At the county jail, felony prisoners take precedence, Atchley said. The problem is lack of jail capacity.

That impacts crime.

&#8220If they don't go to jail when cooking (meth), why should they stop cooking?" Fitzwater asked.

It takes a lot of effort to prepare a case and write a search warrant, he said, and you might not get much out of it in the way of enforcement.

Over the years, that reality brought Fitzwater to realize &#8220if you're going to be in law enforcement for the long haul, you can't worry about the rest of the system too much. You just have to do your job.'"

For a time, &#8220it was driving me nuts worrying about the lack of punishment."

&#8220We have learned at the police department you do your job and do the best you can, and then it's up to the court system," Leopold said. &#8220Otherwise it's way too frustrating."

Measure 11, the initiative approved by voters in 1994 - that specifies minimum sentences for certain crimes - is a good thing, Fitzwater said. It mandates that people convicted of violent crimes will go to jail.

Atchley sees a change coming in terms of Lebanon's ability to house prisoners locally. Currently, the city's bare bones jail - two cells - has no space to hold prisoners except for those on their way to the Linn County Jail or on their way to or from a Municipal Court appearance.

That will change with the new police/courts facility approved by voters in November. It will have six two-person cells.

&#8220I really think its going to have a huge impact on local crime," he said. &#8220Now the city will be actually able to give local criminals jail time."

Communication

Communication has been one of the biggest changes over the years, Chaput said. When he started police work, not all cars had radios in them. Now officers wear portable handset radios and, with computers in their cars, have instant access to information such as whether the driver they've stopped has a driver's license or a record of driving violations.

Technology changes have affected dispatchers' jobs.

Leopold said that in her early years with the department, dispatchers received information from the state police and other agencies via noisy teletype machines. Now such information comes by computer through the Law enforcement Data System (LEDS) and e-mail is becoming the primary way to exchange mug shots.

Computers in patrol cars are gradually changing what dispatchers do, Leopold said, though officers will always ask dispatchers for some information.

&#8220If they're driving and see something suspicious, they don't want to take their eyes off it so they ask the dispatcher for information," she said. &#8220I don't see that's going to change a lot."

Officers use their in-car computer to obtain information such as car ownership and insurance coverage, warrants, and driving records. They also write short reports on the mobile computers, though more complex reports still are done in the office.

At one time, officers' reports were all hand-written. Eventually, another layer was added and highlights of reports were typed into a computer by dispatch personnel, with the more detailed hand-written reports filed away. Now all crime reports are completed on a computer, reviewed by supervisors online and merged into LPD's records system.