Cliff Buchan
News EditorAlmost daily for the past 31 years, David Schwartz has pulled on a police uniform and made the eight mile drive from his Hugo home to Forest Lake where he is chief of police. Itís a routine that has become almost second nature to Schwartz, 55. But itís a routine that is about to change.
On Dec. 31, Schwartz will end his 34-year police career in Forest Lake. He will retire at the end of the year bringing to a close his 24-year tenure as police chief and director of public safety.
ìNot only the drive but what do I wear?î the chief mused, thinking ahead to his first day of retirement and what decisions he will face. ìIím going to have to go out and buy some clothes.î
But change is nothing new for Schwartz, a St. Paul native who moved to Forest Lake in 1964 with his parents and five brothers and sisters. It was a change in lifestyle then and heís never stopped experiencing change in the five decades heís worked as a cop.
Many changes
Since Schwartz first put on the uniform in 1969, drastic changes in technology have developed for police and todayís officers are seeing a vast new clientele with new people moving to the area and traveling through Forest Lake on I-35.
ìWe knew 99 percent of the people we dealt with and if not the person a relative,î Schwartz said. ìThe freeway has been the greatest and worst thing to happen to Forest Lake.î
Todayís police contacts more often than not are with total strangers or people passing through the city, he said.
While police are dealing with a different population base today, they are doing so with far superior communications and technology, Schwartz says. It wasnít always that way.
In his early days on the job, Schwartz said police in Forest Lake operated with one radio channel. ìIt worked most of the time,î he says.
In addition to the radio, police received some calls from a red light. Red lights were placed at the downtown Holiday station and at Setterholmís (Marketplace Foods). When the light came on, officers called the county for details.
Todayís police operation is fully computerized and squad cars and rolling technology machines that greatly enhance an officerís ability to perform the job more efficiently, the chief says.
Todayís police have 16 radio channels to help communicate. The on-board computer systems enable an officer to pull up a photo of a subject within seconds. Radar weather images shown on computers give officers in squad cars precise details on storms, he adds.
For Schwartz the changes in technology continue to explode.
ìWe can do more in a squad car today than we could in the office five years ago,î he said. ìItís only going to keep growing.î
And the technology is hugely valuable, he says, as the police force continues to handle more calls each year. In the early years of his work, the force probably handled 2000 calls a year.
ìWeíre at 13,000 calls right now for 2003,î he said on Nov. 26 during an interview. A busy summer weekend now can result in 200 calls, he said. That number equates to the number of calls for an entire month in the early years, he adds.
Time is right
Not making that drive to Forest Lake will be just one of many changes that David Schwartz will miss. He will miss the work, the people in the community and those he works with, he says.
But Schwartz also believes the time is right for a change ó both for himself and the department.
At 55, he is able to retire and is still young enough to begin a new phase in his life.
He is yet to pin down exactly what he may do in the months ahead but he will remain active, he says. Teaching and writing are both on his radar screen.
ìThere are many options out there,î he says.
Teaching at the college level is one of the options. In January, he will team with Linwood resident and Forest Lake school board member Joe Grafft to teach a law enforcement class at Metro State University in St. Paul.
David and his wife Lucy now own a cabin in northern Minnesota and plan to spend more time together. They have three adult children and two grandchildren who are clamoring for attention, he says.
The city has selected Sioux Falls officer Clark Quiring as his replacement and Schwartz is optimistic the department will be in good hands.
ìItís really beneficial for the city to have someone with new ideas come in.î
Time flies
He is leaving after a long career but believes the time has flown by.
After moving to Forest Lake in 1964, Schwartz graduated from high school here in 1966. After three years at St. Cloud State where his major interest was football, he moved back home, resumed college at Lakewood in White Bear Lake and was hired as a part-time police officer in 1969.
He earned a two-year degree at Lakewood and went on to later earn a four-year degree at Metro State. He became a full-time-part-time officer for the city in 1972 before going full-time in January of 1973.
He held his patrol job until May of 1979 when he was promoted to police chief replacing long-time chief Jim Trudeau. In the fall of 1978 Trudeau was elected sheriff in Washington County.
As chief, he directs a department that today consists of 19 full-time officers, 10 part-time cops and three full-time office workers with a total budget for 2004 of $2.1 million.
Part of the recent growth is a result of the forced merger of the city and township by the courts. The city today patrols all of what was once Forest Lake Township in addition to the old city area and the main business district.
Throughout his 34 years as a cop and 24 years as chief, the one underlying quality of Forest Lake as a community has been the ability of its people to work together for a common cause.
ìI hope we never lose that,î Schwartz said.
As Schwartz makes that last drive from Hugo to Forest Lake one day this month, his mind will wander a bit. He moved to Hugo in 1972 with the thought that his police career might take him elsewhere, he says.
ìI really didnít think I would stay in Forest Lake,î he says. ìI thought I would move around.î
But he never did, defying the one major life change that many people often experience.
ìI tell people Iíve worked in five different decades (in the same place),î he says. ìThatís a unique thing for people these days.î
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