Though his badge says “Elias Casanas,” most people in and around the city of Suwanee known this police officer as “the teddy bear cop.”
It’s been years since Casanas patrolled the town’s streets in his squad car, but back in the 1990s when he did, he had a teddy bear in the passenger-side window.
“I’d pull up at a red light, and people smiled,” recalled Casanas, 64. “I’d grab one of his arms and make him wave, and kids would grin back. It was hilarious. But it was also a good way to teach kids that they shouldn’t be afraid of us.”
The bear got a more serious workout as well, stepping up to do comfort duty when the need arose.
“Occasionally, I met with children who had tears in their eyes from serious and even not-so serious stuff, and I let them play with the teddy bear,” said Casanas. “It was fun, and it makes me laugh to think people still remember that.”
A lot of that reminiscing has been going on in Suwanee since Casanas announced that at the end of July, he’ll be turning in his badge after 24 years on the force.
“It’s been a great ride for me,” said the Lawrenceville resident. “I’ve had the privilege to work with some of the smartest people, and every day, I’ve been able to affect someone positively.”
Casanas started making an impact in 1989 when he left a 17-year career with the waning Eastern Airlines and put in an application with the Suwanee police department, even though he knew nothing about law enforcement.
“But I did know the city was growing, and they were hiring officers,” he said. “They sent me to the police academy, and then I started out as a regular patrol officer when the city was still in its infancy.”
In the housing boom of the 1990s, things changed quickly as subdivisions sprouted up across the city.
“I felt we needed to let people know what we did and that we cared about them,” said Casanas. “I started going around, saying hello to people moving into the new houses and telling them if anything [happened] to give us a phone call. I was not afraid to let them know we cared.”
Eventually, Casanas moved from patrolling to running the department’s Explorer program, designed to give teens interested in law enforcement an up-close look at how it works. “Some of the teens I first worked with are now moms and dads - and three of them are police officers,” said Casanas.
He also had a hand in running the city’s Citizens Police Academy, another program that gives a behind-the-scenes look at how the department operates.
“We’ve been doing that since 2000, and just finished Class Number 25 this spring,” he said. “We’ve had 300 people come through that program. We also created Police and Citizens Together - PACT - that assigns an officer to each residential neighborhood as a liaison to the department. That’s been very successful.”
Despite the positive impact Casanas’s upbeat dedication has made, he said he’s ready to move on.
“This is a younger man’s game,” he said. “We have some great, smart police officers I can hand things off to. But I’ll still be busy; I’m part of the Blue Knights motorcycle club, and I’ll do fundraisers with them. I know I’ll continue to give back.”
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