NORWICH – Sgt. Craig Berry reported for his final roll call at the Norwich City Police Department early this morning, the last in his 20 years of service.
Berry has served the community for the last two decades and today marks his last day on the job.
At age 25, Berry began his career in law enforcement and was hired by the Norwich Police in 1991. During his time at the city department, he also served as a part-time officer in the Sherburne Police Department from 1998 to 2004.
“It’s a huge loss to the department. Any member with 20 years of experience here takes so much knowledge with them when they leave, particularly Craig with his expertise in information technology and accident reconstruction,” said Police Chief Joseph Angelino.
Angelino said Berry was instrumental in “literally getting the department into the 21st century,” as the officer helped install a number of computer upgrades over the years.
“He supervised the entire computer network here. Eighteen work stations and two servers, in going, out going information and six laptops in patrol cars,” said Angelino.
“A lot has changed in 20 years. When I started I carried a revolver. Since I’ve been here, just about everything has changed, the radio system, cameras and computers in patrol cars and a lot of other computer infrastructure was put in place that was never there before,” said Berry.
Berry was also certified as Norwich’s first accident reconstruction specialist by New York State in 1998. The certification requires 240 hours of training programs involving three different certificates.
Completion of the program allows a graduating officer to take the evidence left in the aftermath of an accident scene so they can reconstruct the likely cause and circumstances leading to the collision. The training also allows the officer to testify in court as an expert witness and their findings can be used as evidence. Berry has testified numerous times and responded to countless accident scenes over the years.
Being one of the first certified accident reconstruction experts in the area, Berry estimated he had assisted about two dozen other Chenango County police agencies at accident scenes outside of the city.
One of his most vivid memories as a police officer he recalled from a fatal accident in 1998, the year he was certified as an investigator. Berry was called to the scene of a four-car crash in Greene that left multiple people injured and one person dead.
“I remember it happened on a really beautiful, sunny day and two of the guys, including the one who was killed, were heading to a wedding reception,” he said. “The scene was horrendous but I remembered my training. There are a lot of memories like that for most police officers; the job can take a lot out of you sometimes.”
Despite some of the challenges he’s faced over the years, Berry said he enjoyed being a police officer and would do it again.
“They are few groups of people as dedicated to the community and their jobs as those I’ve worked with here at the PD,” he said.
Berry said his favorite thing about being a police officer was the “normal stuff that let me interact with regular community members.” He said he strongly supports community policing activities such as unlocking people’s cars or addressing quality of life concerns in a neighborhood.
“There are a lot of good people in this town – the ones who hardly ever really need a police officer, except when they need a little help. It was always nice to see and help out those people,” he said.
Berry said he intends to start a second career after his retirement, but hasn’t decided yet what to pursue. He said his main goal in retirement however is to spend more time with his wife and two children.