By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After 28 years, Hutchinson Police Department Capt. Marty Robertson is retiring. Robertson ends a long career with HPD that started all the way back in 1993.
“I actually grew up in Buhler and I wanted to be a police officer,” Robertson said. “I wanted to serve the community I was going to be living in and so I chose Hutchinson.”
Robertson says the biggest change he has seen since becoming a police officer is the technology that goes along with them when on duty.
“When I first started, the only thing that was in the car was a radio and a shotgun,” Robertson said. “You get into a car now and it's got computers and cameras and everything is at your fingertips.”
And that goes for identifying suspects and gathering needed information.
“Back in the day, if you wanted to identify someone, you had to have a picture or something,” Robertson said. “You couldn’t tell if someone was giving you their real name or not if you didn’t know them. If you get on now, you can pull up pictures and real-time information.”
Robertson also noted that the perception of officers has changed mostly due to things outside of the city of Hutchinson.
“I think public support is a little bit less than what it had been,” Robertson said. “When things happen nationally, now with social media platforms, it makes it hard on everybody who's working even though those things aren’t happening in our community.”
Robertson is another on a list of officers who have retired from HPD over the past several years making HPD a much younger department. Still, he says the department is in good hands.
“We are young, but the lieutenant rank is very strong,” Robertson said. “They have good leaders in each one of the divisions and I know those guys are pushing down on what needs to be done and making sure it's being done right.”
Robertson says he doesn’t know what he’ll do now other than make sure he spends more time with his family.
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