Cliff Buchan
News EditorBob Cockburn, one of the old-timers on the Forest Lake Police Department has called it quits. Cockburn, 56, officially retired as a city police officer last Friday, ending a career that spanned nearly 32 years.
Cockburn was the sixth full-time officer hired by the city in 1974. He was elevated to the full-time slot after working two years as a part-time cop, learning the ropes under the direction of former Chief of Police Jim Trudeau, Cockburnís mentor and inspiration.
The retirement of former Chief of Police David Schwartz at the end of 2003 and now Cockburnís departure signals a changing era for the city police force. When Cockburn was hired full-time in 1974, he joined a force that included Trudeau, the late Sgt. Bob Stewart, Roy Childers, Bob Holden and Schwartz.
When he retired on Friday, Cockburn was the last to bow out of the original six who formed the core for the cityís police force.
It will be a big change for Cockburn who has no firm work plans yet but may pursue ideas kicking around his head. If some type of new work doesnít come his way, he has plenty of chores around his Columbus Township home and he loves to garden.
ìI will miss the camaraderie of the officers and being in the know of what is going on in the city,î Cockburn said on his final day last week.
He thinks back fondly on the 32 Fourth of July celebrations that he worked during his career, calling it ìthe highlight of the year.î That has been one of the constants during his work years.
On his final day of work, Cockburn formally turned over the reigns of his investigative caseload to officer Rick Peterson who has been assigned to investigations. Itís a move from one Forest Lake boy to another. Cockburn is a 1965 Forest Lake High School graduate; Peterson graduated here in 1986.
Cockburnís work
During his 30-plus years of work, Cockburn spent a total of three years as an investigator. He worked seven years at Forest Lake High School as the school police liaison officer. The balance of his career was spent as a patrol officer.
Interaction with youth and handling cases that involve kids fill Cockburnís memories.
ìYou have to understand that you are dealing with a negative aspect,î he said of his general impression of police work. That perspective broadened when he worked at the high school, he said.
ìWorking at the high school was the best part of my job,î he said. ìThere I got to be reactive dealing with the same stuff that was going on in the school, but I got to be proactive in speaking to classes and working with kids.î
Cockburn said he left the school with this impression: ìThereÇs a lot of good kids and staff at the high school.î
While working as the liaison officer, Cockburn was the principal author of the schoolís emergency preparedness plan that was developed in the months following the Columbine High School shootings in suburban Denver.
The schoolís plan was presented last week in Washington, DC as part of a national study of how schools are prepared to deal with a wide range of events that could happen.
Cockburnís positive days in the high school pale in comparison to some of the street events where he was called. Not all were pretty.
About 10 years ago, Cockburn was the first officer to arrive at the scene of a horrible head-on collision on US-8 just outside Forest Lake. As he checked the scene he found one adult male and a young boy had been killed instantly in the crash.
ìI didnít see his face, I saw my own soníÇs face,â Cockburn said, recalling his reaction. ìTo see someone that young die really touches you.î
It is such police duties that Cockburn says he will not miss.
A look back
That Cockburn came to be a cop is due largely to the encouragement of Trudeau, who went on to become Washington County Sheriff.
After graduating high school in 1965, Cockburn held a number of jobs before going into the Army in 1967. He spent a full year in Vietnam as a crew chief on a Beachcraft King Air flying high-ranking military and civilian personnel to various locations in Vietnam.
When he left Vietnam in December of 1968, he had logged several hundred hours of airtime. But when his hitch in the Army was up, Cockburn came home.
From 1969 to 1972 he was a sod layer and drove school bus until that fateful day when a conversation with Trudeau led to police work. ìHe was always encouraging,î Cockburn said of Trudeau, another Forest Lake area native who left his mark in the police field.
For now, Cockburn says he looks forward to having more time to spend with his wife Rose and family. His eldest daughter, Cassandra, 18, is a Forest Lake senior and spending her final year of high school at the University of Minnesota in the post-secondary enrollment option program. Son Thomas, 17, is a high school junior and daughter Allison, 12, attends Columbus Elementary.
Cockburn says he is amazed by how police work has changed during his 32 years and the ever changing of the guard in terms of the cityís force.
ìThings have changed a lot,î he says. ìA lot of people (officers) have come and gone.î
Now Bob Cockburn can count himself among the departed.
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