Three decades of police service came to an end Friday with the retirement of Cullman Police Lt. Todd Chiaranda, as friends, family, and colleagues gathered at the Cullman Police Department’s headquarters to throw him a party — and, naturally, to have a little good-natured fun at his expense.

Leaving a 29-year career as the outgoing supervising Lieutenant over Investigations, Chiaranda first joined the department part time in 1991. That’s a lot of years to witness changes both in the community and within the force, and Chiaranda said it wasn’t tough for him to decide when the time was right for retirement.

“When you become ‘those people’ that you used to make fun of, it’s probably time to retire,” Chiaranda told his police colleagues. “Back in the day, we didn’t realize why a lot of things were done the way they were, and as you move up the ladder, you begin to realize why…So guys, have some pity on your supervisors, and try to understand the decisions that they’re making. It’s a tough job.”

Cullman Police Chief Kenny Culpepper praised Chiaranda for his intelligent and precise approach as an investigator, admitting that Chiaranda held himself to personal standards that were tough to match.

“I always considered Todd the ‘quiet professional’ — because he was always there; he was always good at his job, but he wasn’t the one who was standing out front talking,” said Culpepper. “He always shamed us because he was always one of the most physically fit guys in the department — and he was definitely the best dressed. He always made us look bad…and we’re gonna miss him.”

Culpepper may have taken the diplomatic path to assessing the well-dressed Chiaranda’s fashion sense, but former colleague Lt. Billy Handley, who himself retired from the police force in 2016, stepped in to make sure Chiaranda didn’t walk away without at least a little comeuppance.

“For the guys that don’t know the real Todd Chiaranda — when Todd started here, he had a mullet. Not just any mullet: a permed mullet. Todd wore Jordache jeans. And Todd had a tag [on his car] that made its way around Investigations for several years,” Handley said, producing from a large yellow envelope an old, personalized Alabama license tag bearing an era-appropriate swagger-ific phrase: “MR RYTE.”

Ouch. But Chiaranda, of course, was a good sport about reconciling his 2020 self with the younger 1990s version, posing for pictures with the tag as the room exploded in laughter.

Chiaranda joked that he’d become known within the department, over the years, for dispensing tidbits of advice so often that his wisdom had even earned its own in-house nickname: “Tips from Todd.”

“I guess I’ll give you a final ‘Tip from Todd,’” he said Friday. “Retire early enough to enjoy it.”