GALESBURG — Friday marks the last day of Galesburg police Capt. Chris Howard's law enforcement career.
Howard is retiring at the end of Friday's shift after a full 30 years with the Galesburg Police Department that has included various roles, such as patrol officer and an agent with the Peoria-based Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group, or P-MEG.
Howard was drawn to police work after living with law enforcement majors at Western Illinois University, where he went to play baseball.
Friday being Howard's last day is "kind of surreal, really. It's obviously emotional. I've been coming here for 30 years and now I'm not. I'm going to try to keep it light," he said.
One aspect of Howard electing to retire is that his badge number is 78 and one of the most recent officers sworn in will wear badge number 178. Technology evolving has been one of the biggest changes over the course of those 100 hires.
"When I went to the MEG unit, the phone they gave me was about the size of this (computer tower), a bag phone. Then we went to the flip phones and the Nextel where they are the radios and the telephone," Howard said.
The retiring police captain offered advice for anyone looking to enter the law enforcement field.
"Anybody becoming a policeman nowadays, I would tell them to think long and hard about it, number one. You can always leave if you don't like it, but in today's environment things have changed so much, not just technology, but social theories have changed. It's just, it's a lot different now than it was in 1988," he said.
Howard said he worked on large drug cases while assigned to P-MEG and even worked on the Sheraton Motor Inn cold case. Peoria salesman William Ross Kyle was found dead in his hotel room there on June 25, 1980. The hotel is now the Best Western Prairie Plus Inn.
According to The Register-Mail archives, police determined the case closed as all signs pointed to main suspect Raymundo Esparza, who died of liver cancer in 1983. The case was opened back up in 2008 and the veteran's hospital Esparza died at still had his DNA, but there wasn't enough evidence to try to match up with the DNA.
Howard never did investigate an arson case.
"I actually was a suspect in an arson once," he said with a laugh. "As a rookie, I touched stuff at the arson that I shouldn't have and it got fingerprinted and I came back as a suspect so I was in the captain's office" and told not to touch things next time.
As far as what's next for Howard, he will be joined by department staff for a retirement party Friday.
"It's been a pleasure to work here and the city has provided me with a career. I raised a family. I mean the people that you work with, I mean some of them truly are family," Howard said.
As for beyond Friday, he's still trying to figure that out.
"I suppose I'll be like any other retiree, you know, do a lot of stuff around the house ... may give my wife a new bathroom," he said.
Two of his hobbies are fishing and hunting, which he could lead to partaking in the ongoing hunting at the Galesburg Municipal Airport due to an abundance of female deer ruled a hazard for planes.
"I may stay inside the city. I would like to move outside and live in the country. Have some acreage, but that remains to be seen."
Robert Connelly: (309) 343-7181, ext. 266; rconnelly@register-mail.com; @RConnelly_