Wayland's new police lieutenant has seen his understanding and appreciation for police work broaden and intensify over the years as he has gone from patrolman to sergeant to administrator to head of detectives.
Now, as the person in charge of the Police Department's patrol operation - as the only lieutenant, he is second in command to the chief - Patrick Swanick is ready for the next stage.
"There's definitely a learning curve," said Swanick, 44, who took over last month for Lieutenant Bruce Cook, who retired after 40 years on the force. "It is different, when you're in patrol, you learn certain functions and master those functions. Solve a problem, fix it, go home, and everything's wrapped up.
"The detective bureau is a little more complex," he said. "There are interviews, you're in different towns on different days, things take longer, and sometimes you take some more of it home with you - it's not just wrapped up by the end of the shift."
And now as lieutenant, his focus is management and internal operations - taking care of the needs of the department, its officers, and its chief.
"When you become a supervisor, you start thinking on the managerial side of your brain, and even more when you become a lieutenant," he said.
Swanick started on the Wayland force as an auxiliary officer in 1988, served as an emergency dispatcher, and became a patrolman in 1994.
To the brass, he was a natural choice for his latest position in the department.
"I'm looking forward to working with Lieutenant Swanick," Police Chief Robert Irving said. "I believe he has the experience and education to do a fine job as lieutenant of the department, and from what I've seen from his work performance, I look forward to many good things." Swanick was one of two candidates for the job after Cook retired in June, Irving said.
Over the years, Swanick has seen both the town and police work evolve.
"Growth is the biggest change; growth and the amount of traffic," he said. "There was much less traffic - and traffic issues - in the '80s. And now we have cellphones, but now everyone is talking on cellphones. There are so many more distractions in the car."
He also saw attitudes change as time went on, among the public and in the way police do their job. Drinking and driving is taken much more seriously now, for example. "Back in the '80s, people would go for a Sunday drive with a beer between their legs," he said. "You can't do that nowadays."
And the development of computer technology in law enforcement has had its effects.
With something like an expired motor vehicle registration, Swanick noted, "We used to say 'How about I just follow you home, and you take care of it?'
Now, the moment a car's plate number is run through the computer after a traffic stop, he said, "it gets logged. If you let the car go, and it gets into an accident, there's a liability concern because you let it go."
Swanick, who is married and has three daughters, said he grew up with a special regard for police work. After high school, he went up the ranks of the restaurant business and was working as a manager when a friend, who was a sergeant on the Framingham force, nudged him to become a cop.
"So I took the test. I did well on the test, and I got hired," he said.
"From the day I got out of the academy - you sit back and think about it - you realize that you're entrusted with a lot of power and a lot of authority."
