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By Dave Schafer

After retiring from HPD, Lance White turned a hobby into a new career with the department. Photo by Dave Schafer

For 32 years, Lance White carried a gun for the Houston Police Department. For the last two, he’s carried a camera.

White, 59, retired as an officer in September 2005. In March 2006, he returned as a civilian forensic photographer in the photo lab.

“I’ve done photography as long as police work,” he said. “I was done with the police work, so I thought I’ll do photo work. Not that it’s work; it’s play. It’s fun.”

A hobby in pictures
“Photos are one-second slices of life captured forever,” said White, who began snapping pictures soon after he joined HPD as a skinny, fresh-faced 21-year-old in 1970. “It’s a different world than police work. It lets me tap into my creative side.”

He studied and experimented with aperture, shutter speed, light and composition to learn how to take good pictures. “And I’m still learning,” White said.

In the early ’70s, Peterson Photographic Magazine published one of his photos. For Badge and Gun his photos included Elvis at the rodeo, two HPD bigwigs presenting Hammerin’ Hank Aaron with a pistol, former Mayor Louis Welch, and others.

He snapped fellow officers who have since risen through the department ranks. Later, he helped teach photography classes at the academy, took photos of minor crime scenes, and took the film into the photo lab to be developed.

White pins an HPD badge on Travis Wade, vice president of Cadet Class 197, during the class graduation photo session. The HPD photo lab where White works photographs city ceremonies, graduations, City Council and funerals. Photo by Dave Schafer

Those connections and his knowledge of department routines matter to the photo lab, said his supervisor, Tim Palmer. Also, White has a photographer’s eye and is particularly good at capturing people.

When he left HPD, White asked another forensic photographer to watch for lab job postings. Photo lab staff photographs city ceremonies, graduations, City Council and funerals and processes department photos. When a job opened, White jumped at it.

A career in policing
The police bug bit him in high school or early college, White said.

“Looking back, I didn’t have a clear picture of what police work was,” he said. “But I adjusted to the demands of the job. The key to any job is to adapt.”

He worked traffic downtown 11 years before leaving to sell insurance. In 1984, he returned to HPD and spent 15 years patrolling southeast Houston. His last six years were spent in administration.

“I loved my job,” he said. “Patrol was something I could get up and do every day.

“You go and go and go; then one day you wake up and say, ‘That’s enough.’”

In 2004, he went into phase down, meaning he remained an HPD officer but took a long vacation while being paid for accrued time off.

“I went out like I wanted to,” he said.

He worked security at a Hermann Memorial construction site for 18 months, then hung out with friends and played golf.

“It was nice, but I wanted a little more than that,” he said.

“People ask why I came back. This is my fishing and my hunting. It’s what I enjoy doing.”

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