EAGLE POINT -- Police Chief Leon Sherman had a fairly routine eight-hour shift Wednesday.

He checked on road conditions at day break, rattled a couple of business doors, cruised the neighborhoods, responded to a late-morning house fire, filed reports.

But at 2 p.m. he did something different. He turned in his badge.

After 21 years on the Eagle Point Police Department, including the last 17 years as chief, Sherman, 54, retired Wednesday.

"It's time for me to move on," he said during a final cruise of the community.

"This is a real nice town," he added. "I know just about everyone here, most by their first names."

During his final cruise, passers-by waved or shouted out his name.

"Leon has done a terrific job, not only as police officer and chief, but as a leader in the community," said Mayor Dave McFall. "Leon has been a big asset to this community."

In addition to being a police officer, Sherman has been president of the Eagle Point Community Association for the past eight years and has served on the Fourth of July Committee.

Reared in Sams Valley, Sherman, a 1961 graduate of Crater High School, served in Germany during a hitch in the Army. He moved to Eagle Point in 1965 and worked as a Jackson County sheriff's deputy for four years, then took a break from law enforcement to drive log trucks for a few years.

He joined the Eagle Point force on June 1, 1976, and was appointed police chief in 1980. The department now has four full-time officers and one part-time officer.

The toughest part of surviving as a police chief is the small-town politics, he said.

"There isn't a magical answer to that," he said. "But if you try to treat everybody equal, treat them like a civilized human being, do everything honest, open and up front, you can survive."

That can be a difficult task, what with the normal rotation of City Council members and other city leaders over the years, he observed.

"People have different ways of doing things -- good, bad or indifferent," he said. "You have to adapt to those changes."

But small-town police work has its own rewards, he said.

"You see people you used to have problems with as kids," he said. "There was one kid who ran around with five or six goofy kids. People today would have called them a gang. But they were just kids who grew up in the same neighborhood.

"They were a pain in the neck while in high school. Now they have master's degrees and are teaching school or working in the court system."

One local youth is now a deputy district attorney, he said.

"About 90 percent of the kids you have problems with in school grow up to be responsible members of society," he said. "I've had kids come back and thank us. They said that if we hadn't ridden herd on them when they were in school they probably wouldn't be where they are. That helps you realize what you do is worthwhile."

The point is to treat local folks with respect while providing safety and enforcing laws, he said.

That perspective isn't shared by all law enforcement officers, he said.

For instance, when FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency officers and other police gathered in the council chambers at 3 a.m. before making a predawn raid on a local suspected drug lab, an FBI agent announced the raid would begin with the front door being smashed in.

"I said, `Wait a minute. Why don't you just use a key?"' Sherman recalled, noting that he promptly got a key from the landlord. "The FBI agent says, `I don't believe these small towns."'

None of his three grown children went into law enforcement.

"Given today's world, I'm kind of glad," he said. "Years ago, you could really make a difference when dealing with kids. Today, I don't think that's as true as it used to be."

But he and his wife, Edith, plan to remain in Eagle Point where they've lived for more than 30 years.