Badin police chief announces retirement

Published 4:53 pm Wednesday, August 28, 2019

After a 30-year career in law enforcement, Badin Police Chief Bryan Lambert has announced he will retire Sept. 27.

The police chief since April 2004, Lambert said the times have changed over his 30 years in law enforcement, especially in the area of technology.

“In all government agencies, technology costs money,” Lambert said. “We are taxpayer funded. We do not have an indefinite amount of money.”

The chief likened working on a budget as similar to young married couples starting out, saying “when you first get married, and have kids, you don’t have so much money and you’ve got to make it work. A police department is the same way.”

Technology is changing faster than some small police departments can keep up with, he added.

Despite those challenges, Lambert said response time was quick in Badin “because you’re always going to have a quick response in a small town unless the officer’s at the jail or something else is going on.”

Town Manager Jay Almond said Badin “is tremendously lucky to have benefited from 15 of those years” of Lambert’s service.

Working in a small town in law enforcement, Almond said, “is a big responsibility that takes a special kind of person.” He said it takes a “unique degree of interpersonal skills because (the citizens) are the folk you are with in church, see in the grocery store or who cuts your hair. They are the same folks you respond to for public safety needs.”

Almond said Lambert has also served as a mentor for his fellow officers, demonstrating the “ability to fairly enforce the law of the land” while “deftly walking a line which included both handshakes and handcuffs.”

Whether the chief was “offering you a hand moving into your new apartment or compulsory ride to jail, you should probably accept. You’ll both be the better for it.”

The town will start the process of looking for a new police chief by advertising the opening this week “and begin vetting applicants immediately,” Almond said.

About Charles Curcio

Charles Curcio has served as the sports editor of the Stanly News & Press for more than 16 years and has written numerous news and feature storeis as well. He was awarded the NCHSAA Tim Stevens Media Representative of the Year and named CNHI Sports Editor of the Year in 2014. He has also won an award from Boone Newspapers, and has won four North Carolina Press Association awards.

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