By Uriah Kiser
Woodbridge, Va. — Retiring Prince William police Maj. Timothy Rudy summed up his job over the past 33 years.
“I had fun every day,” said Rudy.
While Rudy, 59, calls the job fun, there were many demands placed upon him over the years as he watched a sleepy county outside the nation’s capital grow into place where more than 400,000 residents now call home.
He protected them as the Prince William County Police Department’s Eastern District Commander. He also trained officers at the county’s criminal justice academy, preparing cadets for what they would encounter on the street.
Early on in his career in the 1980s, he served as Prince William Police Chief Charlie T. Deane’s assistant. Deane became his mentor as the years went on.
Years later in 2007, when Prince William rose to national attention as politicians passed a resolution that would have allowed officers to check the legal presence of virtually anyone prior to arresting them; Rudy said Deane handled the situation with fairness and class.
Deane urged officials not to pass the resolution as it was written because he feared the document would deter victims – whether in the U.S. legally or illegally – from reporting crimes to police.
That resolution was later modified and now legal presence is checked after a suspect is arrested.
“A lot of people across the nation turned to us on how to handle the immigration issues. Chief Deane did it the right way; it did it fairly, he did it impartially, and we stress that to our officers to dispense whatever we have to dispense in an impartial manner so we maintain the respect of all the citizens – not just the legal citizens, but also the ones that are here illegally,” said Rudy.
Rudy was hired as a patrol officer on Jan. 8, 1979, nine years after the department was founded. He got his first promotion in 1984 and his most recent in January 2010 when he graduated from police Captain to Major. Today, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors will commend Rudy, however, he won’t be in the room to hear his accolades read aloud. He said he’s not one for parties but he appreciates the gesture.
Through a series of hair-raising incident like sniper shootings in 2002, several high-profile murder cases, and a shooting at the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College, where, thankfully, no one was injured, the department has maintained a high customer satisfaction rating with residents. Rudy said the department values that rating and does everything possible to maintain it.
“We do everything from getting cats out of trees to homicide investigations,” said Rudy, commenting on the versatility of the police department.
Rudy lives in Stafford County, and in his retirement he’ll spend more time with family – like his 92-year-old mother in Pennsylvania who remains in good health. He’ll also spend time with his wife and two daughters, age 26 and 27, he said.
