Senior Constable Mike "Collie" Colligan will retire from the police on Thursday, 42 years and three months to the day since he joined.
Snr Const Colligan began in 1983 at 23 years old as a city council officer in Invercargill and had "loved it".
"People say, ‘What are you going to do? Are you going to miss the job?’ — probably not the job per se. By hell, I’ll miss the camaraderie," he said.
The good people he worked with through the years had "no doubt" been the key to his long career.
"We do the job nobody else wants to do. I’ve seen things that no human should see. I’ve smelt things that no human should smell — we all do.
"The number of kids in body bags ... I remember when cellphones first came out, if I was going to a crash ... and knew one or two of my kids were out, I’d ring them on the way to the crash, just to check in.
"[Then] I knew not to worry."
Two of his career highlights had been wearing the blue uniform to his children’s graduations; first when his daughter graduated as a member of the Australian police, followed by his son graduating from the New Zealand Army.
There had been some "brutal" changes to the job since he signed up, Snr Const Colligan said.
"The job’s a lot more scarier ... myself, I believe a bit of fear is good. It slows you down and makes you think and it makes you plan.
"You’ve just got to remember to expect the unexpected."
Alexandra had also changed during his tenure — "places that were just scrub are thriving ... communities", he said.
"We get people that come to the town who are up to no good, and they don’t realise that in a small town, everybody knows who everybody else is.
"If they’re in a city, they’re a fish in the ocean. When they come to a small town, they’re the biggest fish in the pond."
On Thursday, Snr Const Colligan and fellow Alexandra officer Garry Milford will also receive long service medals.
