KEY POINTS:
Top cop John Sutton promised himself he would quit when he found it hard to get out of bed.
Tomorrow after 29 years, the veteran detective who has put 20 murderers behind bars will leave the force with no idea of what he wants to do.
Detective Senior Sergeant Sutton, 47, has spent most of his 29 years in Auckland and after tomorrow will spend more time with his family, work on a couple of investment properties, take his family on a trip and think about what he wants to do.
He said the decision to leave was a hard one but the rationale for making it had been decided soon after he joined in 1978.
"I always said when I was a cadet when I didn't want to get out of bed any more to go to work, I would leave.
"It just got to that stage...so it was time to go."
Mr Sutton said he had enjoyed 99 per cent of his time in the force and left with few regrets.
One of the most rewarding jobs was the recovery of a young Asian boy who had been kidnapped for ransom.
Police kept a tight public lid on the crime fearing the kidnappers would kill him if word leaked out police were involved.
The boy was recovered unharmed but traumatised in the basement of a North Shore home.
"As soon as we found out he had been released and was safe, that was the best few minutes of my police career.
"We had done about 36 hours non-stop and to know...the kid was safe...now we can go to catch the bad guys."
With children of his about the same age as the boy, it was an emotional end to a highly-stressed inquiry.
One of the big downsides of his police career was the murder of an 18-month west Auckland toddler one Christmas in the early 1990s.
Another was the unsolved murder of 23-year-old Auckland hairdresser Marie Jamieson in 2001.
Her body was found dumped behind a west Auckland factory, nine days after she was last seen alive. Her killed has never been found.
Mr Sutton said he had done 15 or 16 homicide inquiries as the boss and five as the second in command. Marie Jamieson was the only one not solved.
"You get to know the victim, even though they are dead. You probably end up knowing them better than you would have known them if they were alive and you really start to get to know what they were like and feel for them."
He said the police had changed in the past three decades and for many it was now a five or seven-year career and not a 20 or 30 year career.
It was still a good career, he said.
"I would recommend it to anyone.
You get up in the morning and you don't know what your day is going to be...how more exciting can that be."
- NZPA
