ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997               TAG: 9704240008
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI THE ROANOKE TIMES

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE SAY THANK YOU TO TOP OFFICERS 2-TIME WINNER HOOKED ON HIS WORK

Each became a police officer for a different reason - the excitement, to catch the bad guys, to save lives. But in 1996, Bill Boucher, Jeff Herrick and Scott Sheppard each rose to the top as Officer of the Year for one reason - their tenacious spirit.

Early one Saturday, Roanoke police officer Bill Boucher marched into the middle of a dispute on Dale Avenue Southeast. As he neared the front stoop of a house, one of the instigators - a 19-year-old - fell down the steps and right into his arms.

The teen-ager smelled of liquor. He stumbled. And Boucher led him to his cruiser, locking him in the back seat.

A crowd gathered.

"Hey, it's Boucher!" shouted one teen-age girl.

"Officer Boucher, do you have to arrest him?" asked another.

"What if he comes to my house" to sober up? a third suggested.

"Well, then I'd have to unarrest him, and I couldn't do that," Boucher responded, sliding behind the wheel of his cruiser.

Boucher knows Southeast Roanoke. And Southeast Roanoke knows Boucher, a police officer whose celebrity in the neighborhood is marked by his flaming red hair and French-Canadian surname (pronounced Boo-SHAY).

"I can spot him anywhere," said Sandy Duncan, the Dale Avenue resident who called police to break up the dispute that Saturday morning.

"He's a good officer," she said. "He cares about the community, the people and the children."

In 1996, that dedication helped Boucher find a rape suspect from Pennsylvania in the parking lot of a Southeast Roanoke store. He began by talking to the suspect's relatives who lived in Roanoke. Then he staked out a car belonging to the suspect's brother.

Within 24 hours, Boucher hit pay dirt.

The arrest made him the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce's choice for 1996 Officer of the Year, the second time he has received that honor. Only two other Roanoke officers - Maj. J.L. Viar and Sgt. Roy Garnett, who is now deceased - have been commended twice with the award.

For 12 years, Boucher has patrolled Southeast Roanoke on the night shift.

"I'm one of these guys whose wanted to be a cop since I was 6 years old," Boucher said.

As a teen-ager in Fairfax County, he accompanied a police officer on a ride-along. He was hooked. Good, old-fashioned excitement drew him to the job. And Roanoke seemed like a charming place to settle with his wife, Marina, and their three sons.

At 37, Boucher views police work pragmatically.

"I believe in police work," he said. "It sounds corny, but I believe in protecting the good people and putting away the bad ones."

He has no lofty intentions of changing people or the streets he patrols. After all, he says, he finds it hard to change himself. The pack-a-day smoker quits every New Year's and Lent. Pushing a stick of bubble gum into his mouth, he says he's been smoke-free for two months this year.

"I think I got it this time," he adds.

But sometimes the work gets to him, and a smoke can relax the nerves.

A 1990 shooting triggered a nicotine fit. He rolled up to a house and found a man pointing a gun at him, goading him to come inside. Boucher wound up shooting the man in the forehead.

"The guy looked up with one eye, and he says, 'Damn, you killed me man. Why?''' Boucher recalled.

But the man survived. The bullet split in three, only grazing his head.

Afterward, Boucher wanted one thing: a pack of Marlboros.

"I think I asked for lights, but someone said, 'Get him regulars,''' Boucher said.

Boucher has never asked for a transfer from the night shift. Why would he? Darkness brings out all the crooks. And catching the bad guys is what it's all about.

"If there's a chance of anyone getting there, who gets there first?" he asked. "We're the ones who get the call when the blood is still flowing."

LENGTH: Medium:   84 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  KELLY HAHN JOHNSON THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. Officer Bill 
          Boucher is well known in Southeast Roanoke, where his efforts led to
          the arrest of a rape suspect from Pennsylvania. 2. Salem Officer 
          Scott Sheppard has plenty of experience as a paramedic. Last 
          October, he put it to use saving a child's life. 3. Detective Jeff 
          Herrick was the lead investigator and arresting officer in Roanoke 
          County's only homicide of 1996. color.