Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Ray Lavinder

• Roanoke County police chief since 1997
• Retirement effective Sept. 1
• Age: 62
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in education from Virginia Commonwealth University
• Family: Wife and son
• Career: Total of about 35 years of law enforcement experience in Arlington County and Roanoke County

Roanoke County's police chief, an experienced and well-connected lawman with a leadership style described as both hands-off and effective, announced his retirement Wednesday.

After about 28 years in Roanoke County law enforcement and a decade as chief, Ray Lavinder says he's ready to trade his badge for a life of travel and leisure.

"It's time," said the chief, who is 62. "I'm at the age now when it's time for me to retire."

Until his retirement takes effect Sept. 1, Lavinder will help lead a committee charged with finding his replacement.

Not many police officers like to be micromanaged. Those who work under Lavinder say that once an officer proves he can do his job, the chief stands aside and lets him do it.

"He is not flamboyant; he avoids the news camera like the plague," said county police Lt. Chuck Mason. "But he is extremely effective in quietly working behind the scenes and getting stuff done."

Lavinder says his department's 141 police officers are well-trained.

"I believe that everyone I have is very capable of doing their job," the chief said, "and they certainly don't need me looking over their shoulder."

Lavinder, a native of Page County, served in the Army from 1965 until 1967, spending a year as a military police officer in Vietnam.

He later got a bachelor's degree in education but decided he would try his hand at law enforcement again.

"That wasn't too bad," Lavinder recalls thinking. "So I thought I would try that for a while." It ended up being more like 35 years.

In all that time, Lavinder said he never fired his service weapon in the line of duty or suffered any injury beyond the "typical scrapes."

He worked seven years for the Arlington County Police Department, where he was a patrolman and an evidence technician, before he became a deputy with the Roanoke County Sheriff's Office in 1979.

The Roanoke County Police Department was created in 1990 when Lavinder was an investigative supervisor. Roanoke County Administrator Elmer Hodge named Lavinder chief in 1997.

Among Lavinder's accomplishments since then are helping create a firing range and a new county police academy that opened last year. He said he also started a school resource officer program and improved officer training on how to deal with the drug-addicted and the mentally ill.

Hodge says he hopes to hire a new chief by May or June. The candidate search will be regional, but he said that in-house applicants are strongly encouraged, and he singled out assistant chiefs Donna Furrow and Terrell Holbrook.

"We have two outstanding assistants, but there are several of our lieutenants that have prepared themselves very well," Hodge said. "I think we have at least half a dozen outstanding candidates in-house."

It is not only Lavinder's experience and style that will be missed, area law enforcement officials say. The residents of Roanoke County will be losing a chief with extensive connections.

Lavinder is president of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and a board member for the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.

"He has contacts from one end of the state to the other," Mason said.

Joe Gaskins, who became Roanoke police chief in 1998, said he and Lavinder were a good team.

"I have found him to be very professional, insightful, very intelligent, hard-working -- always willing to work collaboratively to accomplish things," Gaskins said.

"But more importantly," Gaskins added, "he's a gentleman."