POWER UP!

I was truly thrilled to learn that the Exchange Club honored Chief Deputy Rob Power with the Officer of the Year award.   It could not have gone to a more deserving guy.

Wish I could  have been there to see it.  When you retire from 30 years as a prosecutor and police counselor, they stop inviting you to celebrate the people with whom you shared those thirty years-- but that's a side trip for today.

Rob is, and always has been, a solid guy. He's one of those rare, smart guys who doesn't need to be the Smartest Kid in the Room. Stealthy smart is bad news for criminals, even the odd smart ones.

 About every six months or so, I will run into him and it's always a true pleasure.  He is always been dedicated to the cause of law enforcement.   He pursues his work with balance and an eye out to doing substantial justice.  I know stories about Rob doing the "right thing" in the field that he doesn't even know I know.  Being "fair-minded" in drug enforcement is not always without risk but Rob will take a risk on the right guy.  He wasn't always quite that blessed with maturity and balance.

To say that Rob was a little spirited in his early years in law enforcement might be a bit of an understatement (I believe the words "Piss" and "Vinegar" were once used in the same sentence to describe his demeanor) but his heart was always pure.   If any officer was on assignment with him, that officer could count on Rob's best effort each and every time.

How the Quincy Police Department let him get away is a long story for another day (or not--actually almost definitely not). The good news is Rob is still fighting crime in the Region,   He enforces the law and keeps the peace, all the time being a credit to his community in so many other ways they cannot be counted.

I miss being around him but am pleased to see that the special things that he does every day have been recognized by the tri-state region.  Not one bit surprised.

Continued success to a really good guy.