In his line of work he meets plenty of people, so Doug Bagnoli didn't immediately recognize the guy who had walked into his office.

But the man sure remembered Bagnoli, the veteran East Hempfield Township police chief. And he wanted to say thanks for something Bagnoli had done to help him 10, maybe 15, years before.

"That was quite a reward," Bagnoli said, recalling that meeting.

"I've always felt like, sure, the hours in police work are demanding and the work schedule's not that great … but the rewards are the kind that you can't get anywhere else."

This week, just a shade under 40 years from the summer day he first came to work as an East Hempfield police officer, Bagnoli announced plans to retire.

The decision, which was made public at Wednesday's township supervisors meeting and takes effect at the end of May, comes after 19 years at the helm of the suburban township department.

Bagnoli, who had to contend with a triple murder in his first few days as chief in February 1991 — he also had a homicide to investigate in one of his two earlier stints as acting chief — is leaving with no regrets.

"It was just time," he said Thursday. "Chiefs I would talk to always told me, 'You'll know when it's time,' and all of a sudden, I just knew.

"Law enforcement's changing, and I think it's time for some new folks and new ideas," he said, smiling.

Bagnoli, who is 60, is a 1968 McCaskey High School graduate. He became the fifth officer ever in East Hempfield when he began work on July 6, 1970.

"You might think you're going to be a good cop, and you don't really know if you're going to like the job until you actually start doing it, but I was never a guy who wanted to work in a factory," he said.

"I always wanted an exciting job, and I knew a couple of police officers" when he was younger. "So I asked them about their jobs," he said.

"And I liked the idea of going to work and never knowing what you were going to be doing that particular day."

Bagnoli has learned — and he tells younger officers — that "being a cop is a lifestyle, it's not a job … people who go into it thinking of it as being a job are not going to be successful."

Under his watch, East Hempfield has done everything from instituting a school resource officer (township patrolman Jeremy Henry) at Hempfield High School to staying on the cutting edge technology-wise among departments here.

He's also proud of having helped develop Lancaster County's new public safety center on Champ Boulevard, which opened in 2003.

Bagnoli served on a committee that studied developing the training facility, "and there's nothing like it east of the Mississippi, and we're proud of that."

Bagnoli, who has a deep layer of kindness under his tough-cop exterior, has a motto that typifies how he goes about his job.

"The main thing I always live by is, 'pay attention!' It means a lot of things … it means think about what you're doing, it means think about what the people around you are doing.

"Because if you pay attention to everything in life, you're going to be successful … do it right, and you'll go home safely."

As a patrolman, then as a sergeant and now as chief, Bagnoli felt that when police arrest people or charge them with something, "you're not trying to hurt them, you're trying to wake 'em up" and get them back on the right track, he said.

"When you have to do your job, people don't always realize how you could throw the book at them when you're actually taking it a little easy on them."

Bagnoli has been married for more than 20 years to his wife, Nancy, and has a stepson, Shane, who's 38.

A serious health scare "that I was really fortunate with" within the last year might have encouraged Bagnoli to retire.

He was at East Hempfield Lt. Richard Schoenberger's retirement party in mid-2009 when his carotid artery in his neck closed.

Schoenberger took one look at his chief, and they rushed Bagnoli to the emergency room.

"The doctor told me how lucky I was to survive what had happened. … I was 20 minutes away from being buried," Bagnoli said.

Once he retires, Bagnoli, who likes to walk and plans to resume biking, might be found from time to time at one particular vacation spot.

That would be Nags Head, N.C., which Bagnoli called "the ultimate in relaxation," a place where he can take it easy and go fishing.

"I'm going to retire, but with my hobbies, I won't get bored," he said.

Bagnoli, who has to be prompted to talk about his own accomplishments, isn't shy when it comes to talking about the men and women who work for him.

"This isn't about me … it's about how, if you surround yourself with good people, it makes the job easy."

doconnor@lnpnews.com