The Beat Goes On

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Ferris, who raised 10 children and lives in Everett with a wife he calls his “reason for living,” didn’t feel old when he turned 70.

“It was weird,” he said. “I don’t know what I expected, but I don’t feel old.”

He would gladly trade the patrol car he now rides in for a chance at another “good walking beat.”

A Mormon, he doesn’t drink or smoke and apparently has been blessed with good genes.

He said his only real faults are a tendency to work too hard — he has never had a regular eight-hour day and has always worked overtime and off-duty — and perhaps a touch of stubbornness.

He’s suffered his share of losses and tragedies, the death of a daughter and two grandchildren, but he’s fortunate to be at peace with himself.

Although he said he has made it a policy not to “moan and groan” about the things he can’t control, there are a couple of things he can grouse about when he wants to.

He thinks the department, for example, ought to re-examine old-fashioned community policing.

There is no task force, SWAT team, bicycle program or policy change that can take the place of a cop who knows the people on his streets and cares about them, he said.

A couple of years ago, Ferris survived life-threatening blood clots that entered his heart and lungs after he broke his foot breaking up a domestic-violence brawl.

He got back on the job as soon as he could.

“I feel like the good Lord brought me through that because he’s not done with me yet,” he said. “I’ve still got work to do.”

-Christine Clarridge