BEATRICE – In about three weeks, the head of a southeast Nebraska police department will wrap up a three-decade career as chief....and over forty years in law enforcement.


Bruce Lang retires in early June, as Chief of Beatrice Police. John Hickman, a Montana Police Chief will take over as the new head of the department.
Lang was appointed by former Mayor Dave Maurstad and talked about the advantages of police administration in a town the size of Beatrice.


"You have to look at, what are you here for? And, I was here for the community, the school district...I raised my family here. It wasn't very long and we got very comfortable...and once you get comfortable, you have to ask yourself, why do I want to move? I really like what I was doing, I felt the community really appreciated me and I appreciated them. I think that's always something you shoot for, because not everybody has that."


Civil service protection of police department leaders in Nebraska means that, unlike other states, police chiefs can’t be dismissed simply because a new mayor wants to appoint someone else…removing the politics from the choice. In the case of Chief Lang, Mayor Stan Wirth says he’s been a steadying hand with the local police department.


"Someone who has operated a department with a very even keel....heavy handed when he needs to be...understanding when he also needs to be....and hasn't created any real issues in our community. I think that's really important that we've got a really strong community-minded individual in that position...and we certainly look forward to the next individual to do the same."


Lang came to Beatrice from La Vista, where as a police lieutenant he led the process of gaining national accreditation of that department….a first for a first-class city in Nebraska.  "So, I come down here and I have all of this knowledge that was so fresh in my head that probably made me look a lot smarter than I was, quite honestly...and then-Mayor Maurstad was a young aggressive guy...and he had lots of changes he wanted to see made. Chief (Don) Luckeroth was retiring after a long career here. The whole community was changing. We had a new fire chief, we had a new school superintendent....it was just a real exciting time."


When Lang came to Beatrice, the department had small quarters at the city auditorium, little office space…and no computers.


"I can remember asking Jim Bauer, then-City Administrator, during the interview process, how many officers do you have out on a shift?...and he said with the supervisor, four. And I said, how many patrol cars do you have?...and he said, three. I'm not a math major, but that wasn't gonna work. Those were just the kind of challenges we had...it had been operated on a shoestring and it needed to be modernized. Of course money is always an issue. The changes that I was making seemed really monumental because from where we started...but they're probably more mainstream than everybody really realized."


Lang says technology has greatly changed police work, as one example…. the use of officer body cameras.  Asked about the best move during his career, Lang says regionalizing emergency communications tops the list…a trend that’s been taking place across the U.S. for its efficiency. He says a close second is establishment of a crime victims assistance program…which grew out of a community survey of citizens views of police service in the community.


About his upcoming retirement….Lang said, "the hardest part about retiring is...giving my baby to somebody else. I want to make sure that it's taken care of, my people are taken care of, because that means a lot to me."


Lang began his law enforcement career as a U.S. Air Force Police Officer. He reflected on his career on Thursday’s KWBE Ask the Mayor program.