A police officer bringing his 12-year-old son to a crime scene is unfathomable today, but for Rochester’s Sgt. Bill Chamberlain that was how he learned his father's profession in the early 1960s.

Chamberlain, who retired from the force last year, recalled growing up in the 1960s when his father, Joe, was a Rochester patrolman. Chamberlain became a police officer in 1994.

“Many times I’d go on calls with my dad as a 12- or 13-year-old,” Chamberlain said. “It wasn’t particularly odd for me, but that’s not possible today.”

Chamberlain, alongside EMTs and firefighters, spoke at the Rochester Historical Society Museum on Wednesday where members presented a history of public safety dating back to the 1800s.

Members Connie Eshbach and Betty Beaulieu combed through historical documents and newspaper accounts for the presentation.

When Chamberlain’s father served there weren’t full time police officers, and when a call came in a responding officer used the family car.

Eshbach said police asked the town for funds in the early 1970s to buy a proper cruiser. Rochester’s first police cruiser was bought in 1977.

“It was sometimes awkward to pull up to a report of a burglary or a murder in the family sedan,” Eshbach quoted an officer from an newspaper article from the time.

Chamberlain spoke about one memorable call, a domestic shooting, that he attended with his father.

“We arrived at the house and didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “My father knocked out two lights in front of the house and entered. That seems dramatic, but in those days there was no radio, no cell phones – we were on our own.”

As a veteran of World War II and a drill instructor, Chamberlain said his father had more training than most officers.

“No one really learned the job,” he said. “There were no police academies.”

During his father’s tenure, Chamberlain said the town “used to be a mecca for stolen cars.”

From the late 1960s through the mid 1980s, cars stolen from across the South Coast and possibly Rhode Island were stripped and dumped all over town.

“One year we had over one hundred stolen cars recovered in town,” Chamberlain said.

On a lighter note, Chamberlain confirmed that some aspects of the job in a rural community such as Rochester haven’t changed.

One audience member remembered listening to the scanner years ago and heard reports of police corralling stray livestock.

“Oh, we still do that today!” Chamberlain said.

Looking back, the police department has come a long way Eshbach said.

One of the earliest mentions of police in town records dates to 1857 when Robert Randall was appointed as constable.

It wasn’t until 1947 that the town appointed its first chief, William Jenkins.

In 1965, the department operated out of one room on the second floor of Town Hall. Elmer Lawrence, who was chief from 1967 to 1970, moved the department into Town Hall’s cellar for more space.

The next expansion, if you could call it that, occurred in 1987 when SEMASS donated a trailer that sat adjacent to the Fire Department.

At 14 by 50 feet, the trailer served as temporary headquarters until the current station was completed in 2001.

The Fire Department has also come a long way.

Eshbach said the department was first mentioned in 1888 when Town Meeting voters approved funds to pay five men who battled a forest fire.

For their work each received $1.60.

“Even if money went further back then that doesn’t seem to be a lot,” Eshbach said.

In 1921, Daniel Hartley was appointed as forest warden. The town’s first appointed fire chief was Henry Hartley, who took the position in 1945.

Current Fire Chief Scott Weigel joined the department in 1976 and was named chief in 2009.

In 2013, Town Meeting voters approved funding that upgraded the town’s basic life support service to an advanced life support system. Also, the money pays for 24/7 EMT coverage.

“We have a full kitchen now and rooms for living quarters,” Weigel said, adding he was grateful for the town’s vote of confidence.

An exhibit featuring the history of the EMT, Police and Fire Departments will be open to the public on Sept. 26 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Rochester Historical Society Museum, located at 355 County Road.