On June 23, 1960, I started my career with the Whitewater Police Department after working for 6 years at General Motors in Janesville. I lived about 3 blocks from the police department and walked to work on my first day as a Police Officer. I walked to work in my new uniform and very proud. I was sure that everyone was looking at me and probably no one was. I arrived at the police department and met with Chief Charles Stelter who issued me my weapon, a 38 caliber revolver , and I put it in my empty holster. I had never fired a weapon of this type before and knew nothing about how it worked. The Chief then took us to City Clerk Warner who swore us in as police officers. Sworn in with me was Officer Leland Mules. The Chief then handed me the keys to the squad car and told me to go on patrol and I did. I did not know how to operate the police equipment in the squad car. We had very little training at that time and we learned on the job. We had to learn fast because you were out there on patrol ,mostly all alone, and to had to handle many situations. I remember being on patrol and praying that nothing would happen because I wasn't sure on what to do. I was very lucky to be working with some very professional police officer who taught me well. Today, police officers are highly trained before they are put on patrol.. When I started we only needed a high school education and today they need 60 college credits to become a police officer. We had a teletype machine to check on wanted persons and sometimes it took 2 or 3 days to get an answer back and by that time the suspect was already released. I started at $365.00 per month. We had a portable radio that was very large to carry. If we had a call where two officers were needed we called the telephone operator and advised that person where we would be and she would call us if we got another call. I retired from the Whitewater Police Department after 32 years. Retired Chief Bruce R. Lyon 6/19/07

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