Lt. Alex Hagenah has retired from the Lexington Police Department after 28 years of service, the department announced Saturday — closing out a career that began back in 1998 and touched generations of residents along Massachusetts Avenue.

A career that spans a town's memory.

The department shared four photographs alongside its announcement, marking nearly three decades of Hagenah's service to Lexington. It's the kind of milestone that means something different in a small town, where an officer isn't just a badge — he's someone residents actually recognize at town events, at the grocery store, at the school crossing.

Part of a wave of long-tenured officers moving on.

Hagenah joins a string of veteran officers who've recently stepped away from the department's senior ranks. Lt. Bobby Levesque, an Army veteran with more than 28 years on the force, retired in 2023, and Assistant Chief Timothy Flaherty followed a month later after 37 years of service. The department has made a point of publicly honoring each departure on social media — a small practice, but one that gives residents a real window into the people who've spent their careers protecting the town.

Leadership built on the same kind of loyalty.

Chief Michael McLean's own path through the department mirrors the tenure Hagenah just completed. McLean started as a Lexington patrol officer in 1995, rose to sergeant in 2001, lieutenant in 2010, captain of operations in 2015, and was named permanent chief in 2021 after serving as interim — a career built one promotion at a time, in the same department, for the same town.