TechnoDave
Member
I've know Mr. Shivers for years, long before I ever started working with him. He was always professional. May he FINALLY enjoy a weekend off.
From The Birmingham News:
Badge No. 1 holder ends 49 years on job
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
CAROL ROBINSON
News staff writer
It was with a mixture of emotions that 72-year-old Nolan Shivers said goodbye Monday to 49 years of patrolling the city's streets.
The longest-serving officer in the history of the Birmingham Police Department retires today, relinquishing badge No. 1, which he has proudly worn for the past 14 years.
"I feel sadness, and I feel joy," Shivers said. "I feel sad I'm leaving all of my friends, and I'm joyful I'm getting away from homicides and robberies. I've seen enough bloodshed to last a lifetime."
Badge No. 1 will now go to Officer Butch Boackle, a 35-year veteran and the only patrol officer currently on the force with more than 30 years.
Shivers joined the department in 1958 and has served under eight police chiefs. He finishes his policing career with only two complaints from citizens and without ever having a wreck in his patrol cruiser.
He said Monday he never set a goal for how long he would stay. "I just took it one day at a time," he said.
About a month ago, he said, the death of his longtime friend, slain police Officer Carlos Owen, starting weighing heavily on him. One of three police officers fatally gunned down while serving a misdemeanor warrant at an Ensley drug house in 2004, Owen was just one month shy of retirement after 27 years of service.
"I got to thinking that could happen to me," Shivers said. "God has looked out after me for so long. He has protected me. If it wasn't for him, I would have never lasted here this long."
In 1961, he was assigned to the East Precinct. He was a field training officer for 18 years and patrolled the Inglenook community for more than 20. He worked the evening shift, and was off Tuesday and Wednesdays to fish tournaments across the Southeast. An avid, and some say obsessed, angler, Shivers was often featured on local fishing shows.
Shivers said his fondest law enforcement memories weren't so much about catching bad guys or writing tickets, but about helping people.
Two years ago he saw a man and woman stopped on the side of the road with a flat tire. He stopped to help and the man told him a spare was on its way. But, he told Shivers, his mother needed to get to the hospital to see her dying husband. She only had minutes before visiting hours ended.
"I said `By all means, get in,'" Shivers said. "I put my lieutenant in the back seat and drove her to the hospital. She had tears rolling down her face when she got out of the car."
He recalled an incident last year when a 3-year-old boy was reported missing. It was dark and cold as officers frantically searched for the toddler who had reportedly wandered away from his home.
While police scoured the neighborhood, the veteran Shivers had a hunch and asked the mother if he could search the house one more time. He found the boy covered with a blanket and wedged between his bunk bed and the wall. He said he'll never forget the mother's gratitude.
"I didn't think she was ever going to let go of me," he said with a grin.
Just this past weekend, he and his wife of 50 years, Lola, were at the drugstore when a man approached him after staring at him for a few moments. "He said, `Can I shake your hand?'" Shivers said. "I said sure but I didn't know why. He said 20 years ago his Rottweiler was stolen and I got him back."
Hundreds of people gathered at Parkway Christian Fellowship in Roebuck Monday to bid farewell to Shivers. There were resolutions from Birmingham's mayor and Alabama's governor, and accolades from those who have worked with Shivers throughout the decades.
"Nolan Shivers is a dying breed, to have the tenacity and resilience to hang in there for 49 years" said former Birmingham Police Chief Johnnie Johnson. "That's a lifetime for a lot of folks. He's the only person left that remembers when I came here."
Former Chief Mike Coppage said Shivers was a tremendous leader. "He epitomizes Birmingham's finest," Coppage said. "If you look up `professional' in the dictionary, there should be a picture of Nolan Shivers."
Jefferson County sheriff's Deputy Elizabeth Robertson, who trained under Shivers as a Birmingham rookie, said Shivers taught her how to handle people - what they wanted and needed. "He was as nice to them as they would let him be," she said. "That was his philosophy."
East Precinct sergeants Curtis Mitchell and Stephen White, Shivers' most recent supervisors, said Shivers was a mentor to all officers and a pillar in the precinct. Officers would go to Shivers with their problems and concerns.
"A lot of them would come to Mr. Shivers before they would come to us," Mitchell said.
"He never would snitch anybody out. He would take care of things before it got to us," White said. "I can't say I actually supervised him because he was policing before I was born."
Shivers said he wants to be remembered for this: "I treated people with dignity and respect," he said. "My advice to younger officers is always treat people like you want to be treated - you'll go a long way in the department if you do that."
From The Birmingham News:
Badge No. 1 holder ends 49 years on job
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
CAROL ROBINSON
News staff writer
It was with a mixture of emotions that 72-year-old Nolan Shivers said goodbye Monday to 49 years of patrolling the city's streets.
The longest-serving officer in the history of the Birmingham Police Department retires today, relinquishing badge No. 1, which he has proudly worn for the past 14 years.
"I feel sadness, and I feel joy," Shivers said. "I feel sad I'm leaving all of my friends, and I'm joyful I'm getting away from homicides and robberies. I've seen enough bloodshed to last a lifetime."
Badge No. 1 will now go to Officer Butch Boackle, a 35-year veteran and the only patrol officer currently on the force with more than 30 years.
Shivers joined the department in 1958 and has served under eight police chiefs. He finishes his policing career with only two complaints from citizens and without ever having a wreck in his patrol cruiser.
He said Monday he never set a goal for how long he would stay. "I just took it one day at a time," he said.
About a month ago, he said, the death of his longtime friend, slain police Officer Carlos Owen, starting weighing heavily on him. One of three police officers fatally gunned down while serving a misdemeanor warrant at an Ensley drug house in 2004, Owen was just one month shy of retirement after 27 years of service.
"I got to thinking that could happen to me," Shivers said. "God has looked out after me for so long. He has protected me. If it wasn't for him, I would have never lasted here this long."
In 1961, he was assigned to the East Precinct. He was a field training officer for 18 years and patrolled the Inglenook community for more than 20. He worked the evening shift, and was off Tuesday and Wednesdays to fish tournaments across the Southeast. An avid, and some say obsessed, angler, Shivers was often featured on local fishing shows.
Shivers said his fondest law enforcement memories weren't so much about catching bad guys or writing tickets, but about helping people.
Two years ago he saw a man and woman stopped on the side of the road with a flat tire. He stopped to help and the man told him a spare was on its way. But, he told Shivers, his mother needed to get to the hospital to see her dying husband. She only had minutes before visiting hours ended.
"I said `By all means, get in,'" Shivers said. "I put my lieutenant in the back seat and drove her to the hospital. She had tears rolling down her face when she got out of the car."
He recalled an incident last year when a 3-year-old boy was reported missing. It was dark and cold as officers frantically searched for the toddler who had reportedly wandered away from his home.
While police scoured the neighborhood, the veteran Shivers had a hunch and asked the mother if he could search the house one more time. He found the boy covered with a blanket and wedged between his bunk bed and the wall. He said he'll never forget the mother's gratitude.
"I didn't think she was ever going to let go of me," he said with a grin.
Just this past weekend, he and his wife of 50 years, Lola, were at the drugstore when a man approached him after staring at him for a few moments. "He said, `Can I shake your hand?'" Shivers said. "I said sure but I didn't know why. He said 20 years ago his Rottweiler was stolen and I got him back."
Hundreds of people gathered at Parkway Christian Fellowship in Roebuck Monday to bid farewell to Shivers. There were resolutions from Birmingham's mayor and Alabama's governor, and accolades from those who have worked with Shivers throughout the decades.
"Nolan Shivers is a dying breed, to have the tenacity and resilience to hang in there for 49 years" said former Birmingham Police Chief Johnnie Johnson. "That's a lifetime for a lot of folks. He's the only person left that remembers when I came here."
Former Chief Mike Coppage said Shivers was a tremendous leader. "He epitomizes Birmingham's finest," Coppage said. "If you look up `professional' in the dictionary, there should be a picture of Nolan Shivers."
Jefferson County sheriff's Deputy Elizabeth Robertson, who trained under Shivers as a Birmingham rookie, said Shivers taught her how to handle people - what they wanted and needed. "He was as nice to them as they would let him be," she said. "That was his philosophy."
East Precinct sergeants Curtis Mitchell and Stephen White, Shivers' most recent supervisors, said Shivers was a mentor to all officers and a pillar in the precinct. Officers would go to Shivers with their problems and concerns.
"A lot of them would come to Mr. Shivers before they would come to us," Mitchell said.
"He never would snitch anybody out. He would take care of things before it got to us," White said. "I can't say I actually supervised him because he was policing before I was born."
Shivers said he wants to be remembered for this: "I treated people with dignity and respect," he said. "My advice to younger officers is always treat people like you want to be treated - you'll go a long way in the department if you do that."
