City Loses One Of Its 'Good Guys'

By JIM REAGEN

Ogdensburg lost one of the good guys this week when Kevin F. Fee died after a lengthy battle with cancer.

I met him 28 years ago when I moved back to the city and joined the newspaper's staff as a reporter.

Mr. Fee had joined the Ogdensburg Police Department in 1981, transferring in from the Tupper Lake Police Department.

I got to know him as he rose through the ranks of the department as a patrolman, juvenile officer, detective and eventually a sergeant. Sometimes he would invite me to speak to the criminal justice classes he taught at Mater Dei College.

Newspaper reporters and police officers tend to get to know each other over time because we are the people who chronicle some of the more unusual moments during their lives.

Some officers spend their careers avoiding the press, frightened to talk to reporters. Some avoid the press for years over real or imagined slights or mistakes. Others, like Mr. Fee, realize that as public servants and professionals, they have an obligation to inform the public about what's happening in the community.

Mr. Fee saw the press as a useful ally to the police department that could help alert the public to enlist their assistance when they could be helpful.

In 1989, I saw that Mr. Fee put this community first, even when it meant risking his career.

At the time, many Ogdensburg businesses were being burglarized and vandalized. Some of the break-ins were a little unusual because not much of value was being stolen.

What added to the mystery was that the thief sometimes would hit the same business more than once, in one case finding where the money was hidden the second time, after missing it during the first break-in.

As the break-ins became more brazen, we heard rumors that someone was actually calling police agencies and taunting officers.

As I later learned, a small group of city police officers began to suspect that a fellow police officer might be responsible. They identified him as a long-time respected police sergeant.

Their suspicions were at first greeted by anger and derision among some of their superior officers. But the seven officers, including then sergeant Fee, stuck to their guns.

Eventually, the officer was arrested and terminated from the police department.

For their efforts, the city and the department threatened to terminate the officers if they spoke to anyone about what had happened within the department. I'll never forget one former officer actually running away from me on a city street after I asked him about it.

Mr. Fee risked his career by outlining for me some of the events that had occurred and making sure that the other six officers who had also risked their careers got the recognition they deserved.

A few months ago, after months of battling cancer, he appealed to the community to support Ogdensburg's Relay for Life, an event that his daughter, Morgan, had introduced to the Ogdensburg Free Academy Key Club, which eventually brought it to the city. Mr. Fee wanted to do what he could to help others battling the disease.

His gesture didn't surprise me.

Like I said, he was one of the good guys.