28-year veteran ready for duty

Friday, July 2, 2010

By Maryalice Gill

Staff Writer

When most people retire, the top of their post-professional to-do list typically contains a scattering of hobbies and vacations waiting at the end of their careers.

Not Lt. Dave Davison of the Bedford Police Department. After his last official day in the detective division June 30, the department’s 28-year veteran cannot wait to get back to work. He plans to spend his free time during retirement doing extra detail for Bedford Police.

“It’s mostly just doing traffic, but if there’s an emergency, I’ll be out there,” Davison said. “If it’s a windstorm or a flood, I’ll be there. I won’t shrink away from those things as long as I’m physically able.”

Davison’s unwillingness to shirk any call – no matter how small, or how dangerous – is one of the things Chief David Bailey said the police department will miss most about the 59-year-old.

“He was always one of the first ones at any call,” Bailey said. “And even in his older age at this time, he still isn’t afraid to be one of the first ones there.”

There are plenty of heroics to choose from in Davison’s three decades working in police enforcement.

In September 2003, for instance, Davison demonstrated his characteristic gallantry when he was one of the first to respond to a shooting at Hannaford Supermarket that resulted in the wounding of co-worker Detective Sean Kilbreth.

“Dave was working just down the street on an extra detail … he was probably one of the first ones on the scene,” Bailey said. “He was the first one to jump on the scene in a volatile situation. He was never afraid to be one of the first ones there.”

“I think I was the third officer there,” Davison said. “I think I actually disarmed the suspect, but I was more concerned about Officer Kilbreth being wounded – I mean, it’s pretty scary when one of your people is wounded.”

“That was probably as close as I’ve come in 38 years in having to shoot somebody,” Davison said. “We don’t run out here shooting up the world – that’s TV stuff. … I’ve disarmed people, but I’ve never been through anything that wild.”

But Davison said he has been through plenty of tough cases, with plenty of long nights.

One, the Johnson homicide of 1988, involving a husband that allegedly hired two people to kill his pregnant wife, particularly sticks out in his mind, he said.

“It was just a long, involved thing,” Davison said. “For a couple weeks, we were all working night and day. We would probably get out of debriefing at 1 a.m. … go home, sleep and go back to work. After two weeks of that, my wife made a reservation, and we went to dinner with the kids at the Weathervane. They really hadn’t seen me. I was pretty involved, and eventually, it settled down like any case does. But the first couple weeks of that that was really intense. … It’s not something that happens a lot in Bedford – to find a body of a person murdered in a construction site.”

But despite all the horrible things he’s seen working as a police officer for over three decades, Davison, jokingly referred to as “Lieutenant Grumpy” in the department, manages to have a sense of humor, Chief Bailey said.

“(Having a sense of humor) is a big part of the job,” Davison said. “You’ve got to have a sense of humor to stay in this business or you’re not going to last. Sometimes people think we are sick with our sense of humor but it’s a coping thing.”

The 10 years Davison spent teaching Drug Abuse Resistance Education to fifth graders at McKelvie Intermediate School contain some of the happier memories he will take with him, he said.

“I got to see some good kids – some of them I saw later – but for the most part dealing with the fifth graders, that was pretty special,” Davidson said. “I think it was just the fact that they got to know that officers are human. … That was probably the best time I’ve had in 38 years – dealing with these kids. I even had one come up to me one time in a grocery store and thank me so I must’ve reached one.”

Davison, who has gone from working as a patrolman to lieutenant has reached people across the department, according to Bailey.

“It’s a void that we have to fill,” Bailey said. “Whoever takes his place has got some big shoes to fill.”

Davison merely hopes he did what he came to do.

“I came in to do a job and I hope I did it – that’s all I can ask for,” Davison said.

“There’s always someone to take your place. I’ve got some good people coming behind me that should do very well. I leave you in good hands.”

Maryalice Gill can be reached at 594-6490 or mgill@nashuatelegraph.com.