Decatur’s longest-serving police officer, Deputy Chief Keith Lee announced his retirement Monday in a letter to city officials. The 54-year-old joined the department in 1989, one year before presiding Chief Mike Booker. His last day is July 29.
Lee grew up in Shreveport, La., graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1984 before spending five years with the Ruston (La.) Police Department. It was former Ruston colleague Wesley Harris who recruited Lee to Decatur.
Decatur’s Police Department was almost the same size back then, about 40 officers compared to today’s 47. But everything else about policing has changed in Lee’s 27 years here, from escalations in education (most officers are college graduates) and technology to sharp declines in city crime.
“You can’t even compare Decatur today to Decatur in 1989,” Lee said. “Young officers don’t believe me when I tell them that back then Oakview Road (in South Decatur) was an open-air drug market. I point out houses to them, this one had fencing operation, that one was owned by a bootlegger and this other I kicked in the door three times.”
During a brief speech before the city commission Monday Lee got visibly choked up in saying goodbye to friends and assorted city staffers. But during an interview with the AJC earlier in the day he expressed little remorse with his timing.
“I’ve been doing this for 32 years,” he said. “I’m not mad or disgruntled — I feel like I work for the greatest police department in the country. But I do feel fatigued, and if I’m going to go out on top now’s the time.”
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