Posted: Tuesday, January 2, 2007 12:00 am
John Atchley's 27 years of full time service with the Lebanon Police Department ended with 2006. His official retirement date was July 31, 2006, but he worked full time until Dec. 31. Now he is working two days a week on day shift as a temporary employee, transporting prisoners and as a patrol officer. That will continue for “a while," he said.
He still loves the job and being able to help people, he said, but his body doesn't hold up very well to chasing young people, he said.
Atchley, 54, spent a year as a reserve before he was hired at the age of 27. He was promoted to sergeant after two years and has been a patrol sergeant most of the time, though he did two turns as detective sergeant.
LPD has “been a good place to work," he said. “It still is."
He enjoys interacting with young kids and having people come back and say thank you.
When he started, it was common for police officers to come from the nearby area. Atchley grew up near Waterloo.
“Back then 90 percent of us were local boys," he said.
He said knowing the geography, especially outside of town, and the people of the area gave him a head start that allowed him to concentrate on what he didn't know.
A working knowledge of rural roads is value during a car chase.
“In pursuit you don't even have time to look at a road sign," he said.
Atchley holds the dubious honor of being the only Lebanon police officer to have been shot on duty.
“It doesn't get much more traumatic than that," he said.
On May 4, 1981, he and officer Robert Anderson responded to a robbery at the Pillbox. It was the third robbery there in several months.
Anderson went into the store and got his gun taken away from him. When Atchley approached the door he was shot in the right hand, losing his ring finger. The two robbers ran out of the store, leaving Anderson's gun there. Anderson picked it up and shot one of the suspects through the window. The other got away in a patrol car but was caught the next
morning.
Atchley also remembers a car chase that occurred when he was a reserve. The driver was seen speeding on Highway 20 in front of Les Schwab very early one morning and took off toward Albany, followed by Lebanon police and, eventually, county deputies and state troopers. At I-5, the driver headed northbound in the southbound lanes. After he traveled several miles, he clipped another car, got scared and stopped. Traffic was very light at the time.
A pursuit would never last that long now, Atchley said. There's too much traffic and pursuit policies are very restrictive.