Hopkinsville Police Chief Kermit “Butch” Yeager can remember a time when he wasn’t as sure and steadfast about policing as he is now, only days from his retirement.

In 1972, Yeager went to police department headquarters and filled out an application. Then Chief Raymond Walker hired him without hesitation. Yeager was 26.

He was in it for the adventure, he said. But it turned out to be more of an adventure than he’d bargained for — at first.

“I was scared of the radio,” Yeager said. “I was scared to talk on the radio. I didn’t understand a thing they were saying.”

Hopkinsville and the Hopkinsville Police Department were much different when Yeager started than they are now, he said.

“Back then there were five or six people on a shift,” he said. “We had six marked cars, two detective cars and four hand-held radios. There was no copy machine.”

Officers had to buy their own gun and gun belt. They drove 1972 Ford Galaxies.

In Hopkinsville, there were nearly 20 bars within city limits, he said. Because of this, police officers rode double when patrolling downtown, where a majority of the bars were.

He felt overwhelmed.

“The first time I rode solo, I was assigned the west side area on third shift,” he said. “You were obligated to check all the businesses in that area and try to catch burglars along with keeping up with all your calls.”

Not only was Hopkinsville different in 1972 than it is now — so was Yeager.

“Young cops love speed,” he said. “Your perception and your thoughts on high speeds and high speed pursuits change as you go through life.

“As a patrolman, I thought you should pursue until the wheels fall off. Now I feel you should only pursue if it is a violent crime.”

Yeager became more confident and comfortable in his police uniform and was promoted captain, sergeant, shift commander and, eventually, chief.

“With what I had coming at me at that time, I look back on it now and it was nothing.”

Over time, Yeager saw just about everything, he said. The worst, though, were child-related deaths. They stay with you forever, he said.

“Everyone has their own coping method,” Yeager said. “You busy yourself with the investigation to begin with. You focus on the prosecution and making sure you do what you can to make sure the perp gets what they deserve.

“You can’t make it go away. Those kinds of things are still imprinted in my mind.”

But regardless of the difficult times, being a patrol officer was what Yeager loved to do more than anything, including being chief of police. He craves the adventure, he said.

“I think it’s a male testosterone thing,” Yeager said. “I tell a lot of people I’ve had a 33-year adventure.”

All good things must come to an end, though. Yeager cannot serve on the police force forever, he said. Although, some may say he’s come close.

Yeager doesn’t have big plans for his retirement. He might sit in his Canton house reading western novels or enjoy his time fishing or going four-wheeling, he said.

Clichéd as it may be, he said, the people is what he will miss most, he said.

“The city has many, many good people working in it,” Yeager said. “There’s people in every department I’ll miss.”

“It’s time,” he said. “I’ve been on the department 33 years and I’ve done all I can do to make it a better place.

“I feel like it’s better now than it was when I got it.”

Many say it takes a certain type of person to be a police officer and Yeager agrees.

“My wife says you’ve got to be arrogant and overbearing,” he said. “That might be a pretty good way to describe it.”

Source:
KY New Era, February 25, 2008
By Julia Hunter, New Era Staff Writer