RALEIGH — A former Lumberton police chief retired Wednesday as the top cop in Raleigh.

Harry Dolan, 54, a 32-year veteran of law enforcement, recently became eligible for retirement. He served as Lumberton’s police chief from Feb. 3, 1992, to March 30, 1998.

Dolan announced his retirement Wednesday in a memo to Police Department staff, retirees and alumni, according to WRAL News. He did not say in the memo what he plans to do in the future.

Before becoming Raleigh police chief in September 2007, Dolan served as the chief of the Grand Rapids Police Department in Michigan for nine years. He also had been a Raleigh police officer from 1982 to 1987, and had held positions with the North Carolina Department of Human Resources Police Department in Black Mountain, as well as serving as Lumberton’s police chief.

During Dolan’s tenure as chief, Raleigh’s crime rate dropped from 4,300 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2007 to 3,781 crimes per 100,000 people last year — a decrease larger than the statewide trend, according to WRAL. Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen said Dolan’s retirement is a loss for the city, calling him an “exceptional leader” who made Raleigh safer with his hallmark community-policing initiative.

According to reports, Dolan emphasized in the memo announcing his retirement the positive, but his tenure was not without turmoil. Over the past month, he has come under fire for a change to how the department evaluates employees and for the expense of a training trip for police lieutenants.