Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½PD Sgt. Jerry Hartsfield first stepped onto the campus of the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ 35 years ago as a criminal justice student.<\/p>\n
This month, he retires with an honorary promotion of lieutenant following 30 years of service with Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½PD.<\/p>\n
Hartsfield, known for being a man of few words, had a simple message for colleagues who this week attended a reception in his honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fortunate to be here all these years, and I hope that those of you who are in the same situation here, 30 years from now, will get the opportunity to retire from Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½PD Maj. Randy Mingo, who retired earlier this year, returned to Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½PD to support his friend and share stories about \u201cthe good old days,\u201d when campus was still rural and when there were much less students and police officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some really great times, and I hope they don\u2019t end,\u201d Mingo said to Hartsfield. \u201cRetirement\u2019s really great. You\u2019re going to embrace it, and it\u2019s been my pleasure to work with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Hartsfield was first sworn in at Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½PD in 1986, Ronald Reagan was president and gas cost $.89 a gallon, Chief Richard Beary said, acknowledging how much Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ and the world have changed since Hartsfield started as an officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cJerry, you\u2019ve got a lot of good friends here, you\u2019ve been through a lot here, and you\u2019ve survived all of it,\u201d Beary said. \u201cA heartfelt congratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hartsfield plans on enjoying his retirement by spending time on his fishing boat and going trap shooting with his friends and Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½PD colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always said retirement\u2019s going to be different,\u201d said Hartsfield. \u201cDoesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to be bad, but it\u2019s certainly going to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½PD Sgt. Jerry Hartsfield first stepped onto the campus of the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ 35 years ago as a criminal justice student. This month, he retires with an honorary promotion of lieutenant following 30 years of service with Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½PD. Hartsfield, known for being a man of few words, had a simple message for colleagues who this week attended a…","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":73046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,27],"tags":[1115,3978,4114,4911,4936],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-73044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-student-life","tag-criminal-justice","tag-richard-beary","tag-safety","tag-ucf-police-department","tag-ucfpd"],"yoast_head":"\n