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For the newly promoted Major Andree Robinson, the road to working in law enforcement began with a redirection from physical education to social work.

“When I was in LaGrange College, I was working on a physical education major and had done some teaching in an internship. Once I finished the internship, I went to the registrar’s office and changed my major to social work, because I found out real fast that that was not what I wanted to do,” Robinson said. “When I went into social work, I got to do my internship here at the police department, and was hired right after I graduated from Lagrange College in August 1984.”

Robinson said her employment with the LaGrange Police Department is the only full-time job she’s had after getting hired in 1984.

Now, 38 years later, Robinson has come a long way from her time as a patrol officer to the current leader of the support services division for the LPD.

As she has worked in different departments, there is a “Golden Rule” she has found valuable in the field and out.

“The golden rule, as we were taught growing up, is to treat people with respect and treat them the way you would want to be treated and that has applied tremendously to the work I’ve done here,” Robinson said. “I saw this more as a detective because not only do you have to be very interpersonal and compassionate with victims, but when you interview the suspect, you have to do the same thing because you want them to tell you what they did.”

Upon being promoted to major, Robinson said it was a very nice surprise.

“I felt honored that the new chief would come in and feel that in such a short time, I was deserving of such an honorable rank.  It’s quite an honor and I was pleasantly surprised,” Robinson said.

With a career going 38 years strong and counting, Robinson said after all this time she still loves her job.

“I imagine I’ll eventually retire but right now I love what I do and I enjoy coming to work. I make sure that the people that I supervise are good, that the climate is where there is no internal stress or discord so that everybody enjoys coming into work,” Robinson said. “I think the reason I enjoy working here so much is that we have a great staff here. The people have a high standard of professionalism and know what kind of work product is acceptable.”