Norwood News

James Alles had a feeling the time was coming. But the longtime cop didn’t know for sure until he dropped his oldest son off at college in Massachusetts and watched him fade away in the rearview mirror as he drove off.

“It was very emotional,” said Alles of the trip earlier this fall.
It also led Alles, 48, the commanding officer of the 52nd Police Precinct for the past two and a half years, to decide to retire from the NYPD after 28 years on the job. 

Besides his college-bound oldest, Alles has two other sons, one a senior in high school, the other a sophomore. Both play competitive sports. Alles said being able to attend all their games and matches was one of the biggest reasons why he decided to leave a job he obviously loves.

“I really wanted to be there for them and watch them play without having to run off to a meeting downtown,” Alles said in an interview at his office in early October.

The time commitment that comes with being a top cop in the biggest police force in the country was both a burden and a great joy for Alles.

“I tell my [cops] all the time, ‘Enjoy this job and the time you spend on it, because it’s going to go by in a flash,’” he said.
What he’ll miss most, he says, is the camaraderie he felt with his fellow officers. “All the joking, you gotta have thick skin on this job,” Alles said, smiling at the thought of it. “These guys, they’ll rib you to death. All the prank calls.”

All joking aside, Alles said the friendships he’s forged on the job will always stick with him.

“No matter what anyone tells you, this is not just a job, it’s a way of life,” he said. “The people you’re with every day, you count on them for everything.”

Alles said he’ll sometimes run into a random cop friend who he hasn’t seen in a decade and “you pick right up where you left off 10 years ago.”

Though he fell ill earlier this year, Alles said health did not factor into his decision. “It was just my time,” he said. At the end of the last few years, Alles said he’s contemplated retirement, but has stayed on as commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct to complete his commitment. He began his stint in the Five-Two in early 2007. Traditionally, commanding officers are rotated every two or three years to avoid stagnation or corruption.

Crime dropped slightly from 2007 to 2008, according to the seven major crime categories. And despite recent reports of an increase in quality-of-life complaints (such as noise, graffiti and prostitution), violent crime, including murders and shootings, have dropped dramatically this year, compared to last.

Alles has been criticized for not showing up to community board meetings. He said there’s no way he could have made all the meetings he was invited to, but if he had one piece of advice for his replacement, it would be “to sit down with the community board.”

Besides that, Alles says he has no regrets and has accomplished everything he set out to do in the police department. Still, he’ll miss the exciting job he’s held since he was 20 years old.  

“It’s an adventure every day,” he said.