Lt. Ron See resigned from Washington Police Department after 25 years

WASHINGTON - After 25 years of service with the Washington Police Department, Lt. Ron See has submitted his letter of resignation.

Growing up in Washington, See said he never wanted to or even thought about being a police officer. He wanted to be a farmer.

That dream took him to Oklahoma City where he worked in the oil fields but after they died out, he went to work in a lumberyard. While he was working there as a manager, he began chatting with a detective from the Oklahoma City Police Department who was the father of one of his employees.

The man talked him into going down to take the test, he did and was hired soon after he said. See attended the Oklahoma Academy for 21 weeks and a field training officer (FTO) program after that.

See said he attended to lots of calls while an officer in Oklahoma City but one of the most important ones was at a horse show. The call was from two women who reported a vehicle break-in. When See showed up to make the report, one of the women caught his eye.

He said he made an extra copy of the report and returned the next day to make sure both women had a way to get home. A couple of days later he called one of them, Julie, and asked her out. They have been married for nearly 35 years.

However, it was not all smooth sailing for him, he said. In 1986 a fellow officer was shot and killed while on the job which prompted him to get out of law enforcement and moved to Kansas. In 1990 he made his return and was hired by Sherriff Yale Jarvis with the Washington County Sherrif's office.

'That got us back here in town and in 1994 I was hired by the police department and it's history now,” he said.

Over the last 25 years See has held multiple positions in the department from drug task force officer to sergeant and now lieutenant. Looking back, he said he cannot pinpoint one particular thing that has defined his career but is proud of all the good work that has been accomplished through joint efforts.

'I would have accomplished nothing on my own. We just have an unbelievable police force and it's allowed me to do what I wanted to do,” he said.

Making the decision to leave was not one he took lightly but one he felt was necessary. See said he felt it was time for a change and wanted to be able to walk away on a positive note.

He said he will miss the work itself and the cooperation between everyone, but he will find something to keep him busy. For now, he's focusing on spending as much time as he can with grandkids.