When Audley Shearer was a police officer and a deputy sheriff, Winchester and Clark County were far different than today.

Audley L. “Lyle” Shearer  passed away Aug. 29 at age 81.

“He was just a great guy,” former Clark County Sheriff Larry Lawson said. “He certainly worked well with the public He was a good deputy.”

At the time, Shearer was one of six deputies during Lawson’s term from 1978 through 1981, he said.

Prior to that, Shearer was an officer with the Winchester Police Department for several years.

Clark County Sheriff Berl Perdue Jr. said he met Shearer when he joined the force in 1982.

“His active police career was over when I got there,” Perdue said. That didn’t mean Shearer lacked for stories or advice for a young officer.

“He worked Winchester which in the 1960s and 1970s was a wide open town and a tough town,” Perdue said. “There was a bar on every corner. He was firm but fair.”

Perdue said he remembers two big pieces of advice from Shearer, both about responding to the public.

“He always told me to treat people as you wanted to be treated until they wouldn’t let you,” Perdue said. “Then you had to take care of business.”

The other was also about the public, as well as the law.

“Not everyone needs a ticket,” Perdue quoted Shearer. “Not everybody needs to be arrested. Every case was different.”

Lawson and Perdue said Shearer also worked for the Clark County Detention Center on multiple occasions as a deputy jailer as well. According to his obituary, he also retired from Goodyear Tire and Rubber.

He was preceded in death by his wife Phyllis and is survived by five daughters, a son, 13 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.