Congratulations are in order for veteran police officer Ed Googins, who served the South Portland community for decades.
What began during his first year of college as a police cadet turned into a career in law enforcement spanning more than 45 years, 26 of those years spent leading the South Portland Police Department.
“Officers can never underestimate the impact that they have in the quality of someone’s life or literally in their worst moment,” Googins said.
Googins said it’s hard to pick just one highlight of his career, but it’s always his officers who make him most proud committing both to the job and to the people, especially during a crisis.
“There is no more difficult work in this world than law enforcement,” Googins said. “There are so many demands from so many different directions and so many different expectations and quite frankly a lot of room for mistakes to be made.”
Photos from today where officers wished Chief Ed Googins well into a new chapter of retirement. pic.twitter.com/qIptWJuuRO
— Karah Brackin (@KarahWGME) January 24, 2020
Googins has seen a lot of change throughout his career.
“There’s absolutely more good than bad,” Googins said.
For both new and experienced officers who have looked up to him for over 45 years, they know there are big shoes to fill.
“That’s a lifetime of work,” Cape Elizabeth Police Chief Paul Fenton said. “That’s more than a career, so he’s an inspiration to everybody a high example to set for everybody. He sets the bar, so we’re hoping to just meet it.”