Retiring cops recall wilder Warwick

 

   By Dave Richardson

   Times Herald-Record

   drichardson@th-record.com

  

   Warwick – Look at this village's Main Street, with its hometown feel and rows of squeaky-clean, specialized shops, and you might think it's always been something of a paradise.

   But Keith Quackenbush and Randy Foust – both recently retired from the Warwick Police Department and feted yesterday for their service – remember that it hasn't always been so.

   They come from an older generation of Warwick police officers, from a time when downtown's now-upscale streets were a little less cheerful.

   Quackenbush, a sergeant who retired this month after more than 31 years as a police officer, recalled his first months patrolling Main Street in 1972.

   "Back then there was a big drug problem and a big bar problem," Quackenbush said. "If you went to work on a Friday or Saturday night, you just knew you'd end up in a fistfight before your shift was over."

   Quackenbush had been on the job only six months when he made his first homicide arrest, after a man murdered his own father with a hunting rifle.

   "You learned under fire," Quackenbush said.

   Foust, a 20-year veteran patrolman who became a Warwick officer in 1983, said the job has changed over time, and not necessarily for the better.

   "Back then you got to know people," Foust said. "You were out on the street, you talked to people and everyone knew who you were. It was real hands on. It was a real community police department."

   Foust, originally from Pennsylvania, moved to Warwick in 1980. He worked for the town's police department, then migrated to the village's own department – now a thing of the past since the two departments merged into one, town-operated unit in 1991. He retired in May.

   Quackenbush, Warwick-born and raised, joined the village's department in 1972, rose to the rank of sergeant and remained a sergeant after the merger. He retired last week.

   Both said they'd miss the job, but are ready to take a well-earned breather.

   "My favorite thing about being a cop is the people," Foust said. "I've met so many good people, and that's evolved into a lot of good friendships."

   Yesterday a couple hundred of those friends and colleagues came out, packing Warwick's main firehouse to wish Foust and Quackenbush well. George Arnott, a 36-year veteran of the department who retired last year, was one.

   "They were both really good officers, and they did the department and the community an awful lot of good," Arnott said.