James White still remembers the night a man walked up to him in Lawrence Police headquarters and handed him a pistol.

“He said he was turning himself in because he had just shot someone,” White recalled.

White took that memory and many others with him after he completed his final shift as a police officer about 11 p.m. Tuesday. He spent more than 30 years with the Lawrence department.

“I think it’s been a lot of fun,” White said Monday. “If I were to do it over again, I wouldn’t do anything else.”

White, 50, grew up around law enforcement in Tonganoxie. His father, John White, was superintendent at Leavenworth County State Lake. James White sometimes had a chance to ride with Leavenworth County Sheriff’s officers.

On Jan. 1, 1971, White became a dispatcher for Lawrence Police. It was almost a year after student unrest reached its peak with the burning of the Kansas Union. But student protests were continuing.

“I would hear the radio conversations, and it made you want to be out there with them,” White said of the police. “I think it was mainly people from out of town who came in and caused the trouble.”

One night, when White was dispatching by himself in the old police headquarters at Eighth and Vermont streets, Kansas Atty. Gen. Vern Miller unexpectedly dropped in. Miller had developed a colorful and controversial reputation for jumping out of car trunks to assist law enforcement officers with drug busts.

“He was just driving through and decided to stop by and see if anything was going on,” White said with a chuckle. “Some people didn’t like him because of his theatrics, but I think he really liked Lawrence.”

After about three years of dispatching, White became a patrolman. He’s spent most of his career patrolling the streets.

White has seen numerous changes in the department as it has tried to keep up with the city’s growth. There have been numerous technological changes, he noted.

White plans to relax the during the next 12 months by hunting and fishing. A pilot, he also plans to fly small planes.

His wife, Debbie, said she never feared her husband’s work duties.

“He was so level-headed and so calm and patient that I never worried about him,” she said.

A reception for James White will be from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Visitor Information Center in the Lawrence Union Pacific Depot, 402 N. Second St. Debbie White is the manager of the center.