Heineman served as Raleigh's Police Chief from 1979 to 1994 before beating out David Price for one Congressional tern in North Carolina's 4th District.
Many people credit Heineman for making the Raleigh Police Department 'A Modern Enforcement Agency'. Chief Harry P. Dolan of the Raleigh Police department said Sunday was a sad day for the department and especially for the officers who knew him.
"When anybody mentions the word "chief", a picture of Fred Heineman pops into my head," Retired Raleigh Police Detective Chris Morgan said.
Morgan says Heineman was uniquely qualified for a career in law enforcement.
Heineman went on from his job as chief to become a U.S. Congressman.
He challenged incumbent David Price for the Fourth District Congressional. Heineman won the seat by a slim margin.
During the 1994 Congressional race, Heineman was interviewed by a former Eyewitness News Reporter.
"Were you surprised?" ABC11 Reporter George Mallet asked during a live interview.
"Surprised by what?" Heineman said.
Heineman already had the backing of the men and women he led, since 1979, at the Raleigh Police Department..
The current RPD Chief, Harry Dolan, considers Heineman a mentor.
"Somebody who I had a great deal of admiration for, In the vernacular of the neighborhood in which the good chief grew up in New York, he was a stand up guy," Dolan said. "And in his neighborhood I'm sure that's one of the highest compliments you can give someone."
"I got a couple, or three phone calls from other guys, saying' you heard anything? I heard chief Heineman passed," Morgan said. "And it was just kind of a reflection on everything we had been through with him."
"He was just a wonderful man to be around, and he always took great pride in that," Dolan said."Of course the appropriate protocol was to refer to him as Congressman, [but] you couldn't help but always call him the chief."
Fred Heineman, Police Chief and Congressman was 80-years-old when he died.
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