ANDOVER — As retiring police Lt. Arthur Ricci left the Andover Public Safety Building at the end of his final day Friday, he recited his golden rule of law enforcement that he's been trying to instill in fellow officers for years.
"Treat people like you would like your family to be treated," said Ricci, who also turned 60 last week — just a day after wrapping up a 32-year police career in his hometown.
"That's one of the things I tell them all the time," he said.
Ricci's opinion is well-regarded by the men and women of the Andover Police Department, many who turned out Saturday night at Sal's Restaurant in the Riverwalk Complex in Lawrence for a surprise birthday party he thought was just going to be a small gathering.
Instead, close to 200 people — former and current Andover police personnel, family members, friends and admirers — showed up to honor Ricci's three-plus decades of police work.
"He was like a mentor to me — an excellent sergeant and good man to work for," Lt. Lee Britton said in an interview last week.
"I actually tried to model my career after him," said Britton, who has been with the department for 23 years, most recently working as a commander on the early night shift.
Ricci had an admirable knack for giving fellow officers and the patrolmen who looked up to him for some good advice without telling them how to do their jobs. That's what made him so special and so beloved, according to Britton.
"He let you do your job. ... He actually guided you through it without telling you what to do. He had a good command presence. He was a good cop and I learned a lot from him," Britton said last week.
Two other lieutenants who rose to their ranks under Ricci offered similar praise to someone they considered one of the most esteemed members of the Andover police force.
Lt. Richard Edson, who joined the department in 1993, recalled how Ricci treated co-workers to coffee when he supervised the 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift.
"Everyone loved him," Edson said.
"He had a big heart. He was a very generous man and was always a great role model and mentor and an all-around great guy. All of us are sad to see him go," Edson said.
Lt. William Ouellette, a veteran of the department since 1992, said Ricci was a very approachable supervisor who was even-tempered and eager to help co-workers.
"Even though he's serious about the job, he's got a great sense of humor. He'll definitely be missed," Ouellette said.
So it was on Good Friday that even a few of the old-timers who have already retired from the department showed up for roll call to wish Ricci well.
Former Chief James Johnson, who retired several years ago, came from Salisbury to see his old friend. Ricci received two promotions under Johnson: sergeant (1983) and lieutenant (1990).
Retired Lt. Phillip Froburg, who was Ricci's partner at the beginning of his career, also attended the coffee-and-pastry affair in the basement of the police station.
Ricci is an Andover native who graduated from Andover High School in 1966 and went on to marry his high school sweetheart, Jamie (Brucato). She graduated a year ahead of his class. They have two daughters, Rene and Nicole.
They have been married for 42 years. They bought a townhouse in Haverhill 14 years ago after their daughters left home and have lived there ever since.
Ricci enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and spent a year (1968) in Vietnam. In 1975, he became a full-time member of the Andover Police Department. Seven years later, he was a detective. Just a year after that job, he became a superior officer.
"My goal was to stay in for 32 years and retire at 60," Ricci said last week, reflecting on his career.
"I stayed on an extra six months to reach the 60," he said, shortly after turning in his gun, badge, passes, handcuffs, police radio, cell phone and other tools of the job.
Ricci didn't talk about commendations or career highlights, primarily because he spent the last 25 years working as a superior officer and overseeing the work of others. He spoke about the camaraderie he shared with some of the old-timers such as Froburg.
An unforgettable memory that Ricci said he leaves with involved a fatal accident on Haverhill Street in Andover where two teenagers were killed when their car crashed into a tree.
"I had to tell both their parents when they came to Lawrence General Hospital — one at a time — that their child had died. I'll never forget it," Ricci said.
"Back in the '70s and '80s, the officers had to do death notification by themselves. It was hard. Especially when you're dealing with young people. Nowadays, at least you have TIP," he said, referring to Trauma Intervention Program of the Merrimack Valley, a group that provides emotional first aid to the victims of traumatic and tragic events.
"Their volunteers are trained to deal with tragedy and they accompany us to the hospital room and are there to assist the police. They really help us out. Still, the worst thing in the world that a cop has to face is seeing a kid or young child who died in the crash and then having to notify the family. No officer likes to deal with that," he said.
Before heading out of the police station Friday, Ricci reflected on some of the biggest changes he's seen in law enforcement over the years.
When he began, police departments were just getting rid of call boxes. The police cruisers weren't air-conditioned in 1975. And the officers didn't have portable police radios to carry around.
Every car had two officers. And it took 10 to 15 minutes to run a license plate check. The officer would use the car radio that shared a frequency with another department. A dispatcher would run the number over the teletype machine.
"And there was no protective cage in the back (of the cruiser) so they (prisoners) could spit on you and do whatever else they wanted. And they would spit on you sometimes," Ricci recalled.
Nowadays, officers drive alone in air-conditioned cruisers, most of them with electronic equipment that enables instant retrieval of license plate numbers. Prisoners in the rear seat don't pose a threat to the officer anymore. The officers have portable radios handy. It's a high-tech world of law enforcement.
Ricci plans to maintain his ties with police on a part-time basis as an auxiliary police officer, doing an occasional day road job or overseeing crowd control at holiday parades.
"But I also plan on doing some fishing with my brother and friends, doing some traveling with my wife, and seeing my grandchildren more than I do now," Ricci said.
