After tour in Iraq, Brewer chief to savor retirement
Saturday, March 11, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

BREWER - Police Chief Steven Barker has nearly 30 years' experience in law enforcement, but he says it was his service in Iraq last year that made him realize he wanted to spend more time enjoying his life in Maine.

"Those activities that people engage in on the weekend ... I want to do those things seven days a week," he said Wednesday, the day he announced his retirement.

Barker, now 49, was a teenager on a three-month internship when he started at Brewer Police Department in June 1976.

"After that three months, I was hired here and stayed working here," he said Friday during an interview in his office at the South Main Street police station.

After the internship, Barker, 19 at the time, was hired as a part-time dispatcher and part-time officer.

"I kind of had to wait until I was 20" to become full time, he said. He became chief 12 years ago.

Barker has served overseas twice, but his year in Iraq, where he was under constant stress working as an international police liaison officer, or adviser, in support of the new Iraqi police force, made him realize more clearly what he had back home.

"He's earned it," said Connie Robichaud, 25-year receptionist for the department, who described Barker as a "brother, mentor, a conscience."

"He's definitely someone to look up to," she said. "He was just a young guy when I came here. ... Steve, [Capt.] Danny Green, [Lt.] Perry Antone - I've watched all of those guys grow up in front of me."

While Barker describes his job as "driving the boat," the people who work with him think otherwise.

"We don't want him to go," Officer Rich Smith said Friday.

His decision to retire was a hard one, Barker said, because he enjoys what he does.

"The changing pace of the job, the day to day, the excitement" keeps it interesting, he said.

"I used to keep newspaper clippings whenever my name was mentioned," he said. "But at some point it just became part of the job," he said. "Today it may be a big case, but by tomorrow I've moved on to the next one."

Over the past three decades, the tools of his profession improved tremendously, but Barker said it is the dedicated employees who make the Brewer Police Department what it is today. "I have come to recognize it's not the chief of police that make this department - it's the people," Barker said.

"They're proud of the work they do, they're dedicated, and this department has a good reputation because of it," he said. "As chief, that makes me proud."

April 28 will be Barker's last day on the job.

"I fully intend to just retire and enjoy the retired life," he said. "I want to do that seven days a week."

A copyright article from the Bangor Daily News, Saturday, March 25, 2006 by Nok-Noi Hauger.