I sat down with Mike Thakur of WorkLodge to talk about what retirement looked like after a career of public service. To be frank; retirement sucked! Wrong What I thought was going to be my golden years after a hard and dangerous career that included 12 years working undercover narcotics and 16 years as a SWAT commander before retiring as a chief of police, dumped me in a dark wilderness season. That season lasted almost one and a half years and the left me in complete despair

Casper Ghost was the word I once used to describe myself. After decades of serving the public and being at the core of making sense out of chaos, I’d become a social ghost. A non-factor in making a daily difference in people’s lives. We get this unrealistic image of what retirement is supposed to look like, and once we arrive, it’s like making hotel reservations at some scam vacation site. This is especially true for cops who mash their identity to what they do, as opposed to

FIT@50 / week 73 Kinda Weird: We came back to Louisiana for a few days while the kids were tucked away at summer camp. There were things left to do right before school resumed. Had it been notebooks and rulers, we would’ve knocked out quick. It was more involved – it’s always more involved. Thanks to an unscrupulous builder (much more on that later) we’ve no base camp with Max heading back to the grind next week. With the helpfulness of our community, finding digs was no prob

FIT@50 / week 66 True Power: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix This week I received two notices about Chief of Police positions in Louisiana. My immediate thoughts were “No thanks.” It was about this time last year that I’d announced my August 28th retirement date. I would’ve never in a million years thought retirement from the only job I’d known would’ve been a reality. To be honest, I just assumed, and was happy w

FIT@50 / week 39 Let’s Walk The water in the background is Bayou Lafourche. Growing up in Cajun Country I swam in that bayou, paddled a pirogue in that bayou, fished in that bayou and played in that bayou. I never once in 50 years ever walked across that bayou. Not until recently. It was a Saturday festival downtown and we looked for the rare space to park. I suggested we walk. And we did. About half way across I stopped and told Liliana Hart it was the first time I ever walk

FIT@50 / week 25 The Ghost On Saturday I drove around the city in my POV (personally owned vehicle), sorry cop talk. I noticed drivers without seatbelts, easing through stop signs, and generally just motoring about their business. On the previous Friday, I’d been in my police cruiser. It had a wholly different effect. People immediately put on their seatbelts, they completely stopped at signs and they glance or nodded as they motored about their business. I thought on that S

FIT@50 / week 24 It’s A Date: When I chose today as my retirement date, I never considered the historical significance it shared with another event that forever changed my life and worldview – Hurricane Katrina. Today’s the day I leave the one job I’ve had my entire adult life. I will miss so many things about it. Mostly, I’ll miss leaving an anchor, that despite unbelievably chaotic and risky times, also served to center and shape who I am. How will I feel at 5:01pm today?

FIT@50 / week 22 Unmasked: This week I made it official that after more than 25 years in the business it was time to heed God’s calling and retire from policing. Not an easy decision, it was all I’ve done my entire life. It’s all I knew and knew I was good at it. Most friends, and even family have never known much about my career other than I always seemed to be working at it. They don’t know about the effects of working SWAT for 16 years. The constant training and obsession

Hi All, It’s official – I’m retiring from law enforcement on August 28, 2015. I tried to think of an introspective post about bringing a career that began in 1990 to a close, but I could never capture what these years have meant to me. I told a friend that cop years are like hard dog years. I’ve had times that tore at my soul, but as many or more than have touched it. In the end, it’s been faith, family and friends that kept me whole. God placed it on my heart about a year a

Think of those immediately surrounding you in supervisory positions. Now filter out your natural biases, jealousies or negative comments. Just look around. How did they get to where they are? Okay, now you’re free to flood the responses with whatever your perception is of how they arrived at that level. Some of your suspicions are probably true. This article isn’t as much for those being led, as those doing the leading. Ask yourselves how’d you get where you are? Was it becau