Police Chief Wayne Bean retiring after 43 years of service

CULVER, Ind. -- Chief Wayne Bean celebrated his upcoming retirement this afternoon, ending 43 years of service to the community.

Bean has been Chief of the Culver Police Department since 2000 and is retiring from the role at the end of the month.

ABC57 caught up with Bean this afternoon, who says his tenure was full of growth for the department.

"I think I've accomplished a lot of things, as far as the law enforcement side, good, I think, over especially the last 20 years, working well with our city council and stuff, I feel I brought the department. There's still a lot of things that get accomplished. I mean, it's a never-ending thing with, you know, in today's world with technology and everything, I mean, there's still steps to take and but I've got us a long way. I mean, I think in my tenure here," stated Bean.

Taking over the role after Bean's retirement will be Deputy Chief Chad Becker, who has worked with Bean for 27 years. 

"Wayne was very generous and went to our council and gave them a very good heads up on his intention to retire. So, he gave at least a two-month notification so that our town council could make that transition what they wanted to do for the appointment of the next chief. Very fortunate that I have the support of the council the community, and the council has appointed me as the next chief. And so we had that time to do a transition. And so, it'll be a little bit of a change, because again, I came into this career 27 years ago, and Wayne has always been my supervisor for those 27 years," stated Becker.