On Friday, for the last time in his four decades with the City of Tonawanda Police Department, Capt. Fredric Foels drank a glass of orange juice, rode his bicycle the two-tenths of a mile from his home and sat down at his desk to read through the overnight reports from patrol, while eating a banana.
Sept. 1 was Foels’ last day on the job before he retires.
The OJ and the banana might be part of the reason why he’s never taken a single sick day in his career, Foels said.
Or maybe a more simple reason why he has devoted his life to serving the 15,000 residents of the 3.9-square-mile city on the banks of the Niagara River.
“Three simple words: love the job,” Foels said last week in his office as he sat down with The Buffalo News to talk about his career.
A lifelong resident of the city, Foels said he was inspired to become a police officer because his father, Leonard Foels, was one too.
“Just seeing him, watching him and having him come home for lunch in uniform,” Foels recalled.
He has watched the job of police officer evolve in his career, especially the way it starts. He was hired in 1982 and was sent to the police academy for 16 weeks, compared to the 21 officers go through now.
His field training with a senior officer lasted just a couple of weeks, he said. “And basically, you were by yourself,” he said. That supervision now lasts about six months.
Like many rookies, Foels started out on the midnight shift.
Foels recalled the first time he was alone on patrol. An Amtrak train conductor had called to report that he thought his train might have hit a person on the tracks that run through the city.
“It was a Saturday night, midnight. All alone,” Foels said.
He recounted how he and a lieutenant had to climb up a steep embankment to meet the conductor and engineer who were standing on the tracks by the stopped train.
“It takes almost a half a mile for them to stop,” Foels said. His lieutenant told him to start…
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