TIOGA, TX - The Tioga Chief of Police celebrated his retirement today, after over 40 years in law enforcement.

Chief Dick Rodgers says he's reluctantly closing the book on a long career.

"It was hard to accept at first, but there's other things in line somewhere down the road for me." said Rodgers.

Dozens of friends and family gathered today at the United Methodist Church in Tioga to honor Rodgers, who served the last 4 years as the Chief of Police.
He says health problems forced him to make the tough decision to retire.

"Mentally I wasn't ready to give up the job and quit working, I wanted to go 3 or 4 more years, but health issues made a difference in what I could do and couldn't do." Rodgers said.

Before taking the position as Chief in Tioga, Rodgers had also worked for the Howe police department, and Grayson County Sheriff's office.
His son, Ryan, says it's sad to see him hang up the badge.

"It's a hard thing, he's been in law enforcement for a long time, done a lot of good things for a lot of communities for the county." Rodgers said.

Tioga Fire Chief, Paul Rodarmer, says Rodgers will be tough to replace.

"He's brought the general moral of the city up just amazingly, when we got here it was much different than it is now, now everyone knows one another, everyone waves to one another as they walk by." Rodarmer said.

Rodgers says law enforcement is all he's ever known, and he was happy to dedicate his life to serving the public.

"To me it was always if it's important enough to them to call the police, it's important enough to me to respond as quickly as possible." Rodgers said.

For now he says he'll focus on getting healthy and spending time with his grand kids.
He says it was his goal to retire as Chief of Police in Tioga, and although he wasn't quite ready, he's glad he achieved that goal.