Lt. Armen Garo says he plans to retire in a few months. He continues to land television and movie roles. “It’s not like you’re living your whole life in uniform, people have families, kids… But it’s like my dad always used to say, ‘An honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.’ “

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

EAST PROVIDENCE — Police Lt. Armen Garo is always busy, but with a budding career as an actor, it’s a different kind of busy from what he did voluntarily for nearly 20 of his 23 years in law enforcement.

In that not-too-distant past, Garo had many 17-hour days — the maximum amount a city policeman could work contractually in a 24-hour period. He doubled his day with overtime and detail work.

He said being away from home could have a played a role in his three failed marriages, but the extra money was necessary to supplement his expected pension. It’s certainly the reason why he has been consistently among the top 5 or 10 highest-paid employees in the city.

“I’m not kidding when I say this, I may have 40 years’ worth of man-hours locked into this,” Garo said in an interview Saturday. “You know, for a while I made it a game. There was one year when two or three patrolmen were comparing notes [about what they made in their paychecks], so we started trying to outdo each other and I kind of got obsessed with it.”

The 53-year-old, who plans to retire in the next six months and hasn’t worked details since 2006, continued, “There was a year I wanted to make more than the chief [former Chief Gary P. Dias] and deputy chief [former Maj. Wayne Gallagher] combined. I barely, just barely, did it. The year before that, I wanted to make more than [former City Manager] Paul Lemont. I didn’t have to, I just wanted to.”

In 2006, according to financial records supplied to The Journal, Garo was the third highest-paid city employee, including school workers and administrators. He would have been the highest-paid nonschool employee except that planning director Jeanne Boyle earned more than her regular salary because she was also the acting city manager.

Garo made $121,109.26. His base was doubled with nearly $18,500 of overtime, $32,000 of detail pay and another $10,651 for clothing allowances and other contractual payments and incentives.

Asked about his total, the colorful Garo said, “Oh, that’s a low year.”

He didn’t know what his highest year was.

“I did probably what people called too much,” the Massachusetts homeowner said. “I don’t deny that. I had blueprinted for myself, if you will, with a financial adviser, a financial plan for my retirement because there was a plan that the city offers and then there was an opportunity to [put additional money into an annuity]. Look, I’m Armenian. We tend to pay attention to financial matters.”

He continued, “You know when you’re old, let’s face it, we don’t live in a society where the elderly are treated well. Sometimes the only friend is your checkbook, unfortunately. You know what I mean.... Thankfully, the gas company had a lot of details and there were construction jobs. Most [of his salary] wasn’t the taxpayers’ money. I wasn’t draining the city’s finances.”

An only child from Troy, N.Y., Garo went to a strict military academy for high school. He holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Emerson College in speech communication. He also is a ninth-degree black belt in kempo karate, and it was while studying at George Pesare’s Kempo Karate Institute, in Providence, that he met police officers and became interested in the job. He was hired in 1984. His career highlights include helping to catch a cat burglar who broke into dozens of homes in 1985, rummaging through bedrooms while the occupants slept. After an early-morning chase through Rumford, with residents coming out to watch in their nightclothes, the burglar was captured after he dived into the Ten Mile River.

Also in the 1980s, he was part of a raid on a gas station that was selling stolen goods bought from shoplifters.

“That to me is not seeking a thrill. That to me is doing your job and getting extra special satisfaction from taking someone bad off the streets,” Garo said. “… It’s always good to get a gun [off the streets] because you know it carries such a tragic potential.”

The low times were the months that coincided with his divorces. He also admits that he has been suspended and disciplined over the years, sometimes for months at a time, but says many of the suspensions came from not being a “lackey.” He said city and departmental politics as well as some mistakes on his part have also contributed to his not-so-great personnel file.

Department officials and City Manager Richard Brown are not allowed to comment on personnel actions.

Garo said he is a public servant: changing elderly folks’ tires, sitting and talking with kids to know what’s truly going on in the city and giving tours of the department when school teachers ask. He said while on duty and in uniform, he once even pitched for a bunch of Riverside youth who wanted to play kickball and needed a pitcher. He said he had his radio on, but some higher-ups then said it looked “unprofessional.”

“That’s what a lot of those disciplinary things were about because sometimes I disagreed with to the point where… All I was doing was trying to defend my way of doing something,” Garo said.

Although he let it go for several of his initial adult years, he got the acting bug in high school after winning an English class assignment where he recited the 1866 poem, “The Yarn of the Nancy Bell,” by William Schwenck Gilbert. He played an attorney and a Russian secret police officer the following years as a member of the dramatic arts club.

He said his first big break came in the Michael Corrente film, Federal Hill, where he played a questionable officer. Roles since then included recurring roles (a hit man and detective, respectively) on the Sopranos and The Brotherhood; “gangster number one” in The Departed; a burglar in Underdog; and other pictures and sitcoms where he played a mobster, thug or officer. He is “man number 6” in an upcoming comedy with Tina Fey and Rob Lowe.

Said Garo, “I know I look and sound the part [a thug], so that’s pretty much what I get.”

For an interview, Garo wore pinky rings and another ring of onyx and gold with a “G” in diamonds. He wore blue-tinted sunglasses, a black button-down shirt with flaps and snaps on his shoulders and wore his hair slicked back. The black and white patent leather shoes stood out.

He didn’t say what he is paid for acting jobs, but when asked if he misses the money he received for details and overtime, Garo said, “It was never about the money…. You can’t begrudge someone for trying to improve their quality of life. It’s not like you’re living your whole life in uniform, people have families, kids… But it’s like my dad always used to say, ‘An honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.’

“So if I worked so many hours a week, I got paid for those hours and nothing more. I don’t feel guilty about it. I know there are people who will view people who make more money negatively, I understand that, however I contribute to my church, I am the honorary chairperson for the Make A Wish Foundation….I get thank-yous all the time and that’s not documented. You’re not going to find that in the records. So I’ve never had any qualms with the money I made because, guess what, taxpayers got their money’s worth.”

apina@projo.com