Congratulations are in order for veteran police officer Ed Googins, who served the South Portland community for decades. What began during his first year of college as a police cadet turned into a career in law enforcement spanning more than 45 years, 26 of those years spent leading the South Portland Police Department. “Officers can never underestimate the impact that they have in the quality of someone’s life or literally in their worst moment,” Googins said. Googins said it’s hard to pick just one highlight of his career, but it’s always his officers who make him most proud committing both to the job and to the people, especially during a crisis. “There is no more difficult work in this world than law enforcement,” Googins said.