Dear Joan,

With just two more days left prior to my retirement I am taking this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation for the great working relationship and spirit of cooperation that has existed between your office and my department since the first day you became our Commonwealth Attorney. You and all of your staff have been an absolute pleasure to work with and I greatly appreciate everything that each of you have done in our pursuit of justice.

I will be forever indebted to your strong and unwavering position of being tough on crime. I say that because as you well know, in 2000 our city had the highest murder rate per capita in the State. Sadly, our city had 10 murders during my first eleven months on the job as Chief of Police. We had so many shootings and other violent crimes being committed that we had to form a partnership with the Virginia State Police and ATF to get things under control.

Sadly, I recall the elderly lady living on Fayette Street who slept in her bathtub at night because of all the shootings taking place on the West End and her fear that a stray bullet would enter her house at night. I will also never forget my CONSTANT fear of having a police officer killed in the line of duty while responding to all of the shootings in progress and other high risk calls for service.

In 2002, only Richmond, Petersburg, Portsmouth and Winchester had higher crime index ratings than the City of Martinsville. For nearly every year since that time the crime ratings for Martinsville have continued to decline and we have recently been at or below the state average. That is something I have been extremely proud of. As I have mentioned in the past, there are a lot of factors which have contributed to the reduction in crime in our city, but nothing has impacted it more than very strong law enforcement, coupled with the aggressive prosecution of crimes by you and your assistants.

Your reputation for being a very tough prosecutor is well known on our city streets and has without a doubt, become one of the greatest deterrents to people committing crimes in our city. Many of the DEA and State Police Agents we have worked with in the past continue to talk about the many times in which drug dealers refused to set up a drug deal in the city because they knew they would get “Jersey Time” if they were caught and then prosecuted by your office.

I have to laugh because it reminds me of when I was growing up; I absolutely walked the line because I knew the discipline I would get from my parents for breaking the rules was ALWAYS going to be certain, swift, and something I would never forget. :-) I suspect there are many young people in the community who have chosen the right road in life after listening to their family members and/or friends talk about the serious consequences of being prosecuted by your office after getting caught breaking the law.

The fact that our crime rates are the lowest we have seen in at least 30 years, in spite of high uneemployment in our city, is something you and I can be very proud of and I give you a lot of the credit for it.

One thing I WILL ALWAYS respect you for is your strong belief in doing your job without fear, favor or prejudice. I have told everyone I greatly admire the fact that with you, it does not matter who the person is, whether they are black or white, rich or poor, you treat everyone the same.

Former Chief of Police Terry Roop used to always tell me that you make decisions based on what is the right thing to do and you have always done that. Much like my job has been, no matter how hard you try, there is no way you can please everyone especially when you are the one who has to arrest or prosecute people.

Unfortunately, your job has been a lot like mine in that no matter how hard you may try, there is no way you can please everyone. Although you have a few critics, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ONE who can say the safety of our citizens and their police officers has not significantly increased as a result of your strong position on fighting crime. I can assure you I will never forget what it used to be like in this city and how concerned I was for public safety and that of my officers. I cannot help but wonder how many more citizens are alive today because of your strong prosecutorial efforts in the past.

On a personal note, I could never thank you enough for the great friendship and support you have extended to me during our many years of working together. It has been an absolute pleasure working with you and your great staff. I sincerely thank all of you for everything you have done my officers, our citizens and the city of Martinsville.

In closing, I ask that you please share my comments with all of your employees. I wish you and everyone who works for you the very best in the future.

Sincerely,

Michael E. Rogers
Chief of Police