My Clearwater
Fall 59
Like Mother, Like Son
When Will Spelman became a new
Clearwater Police officer in March, he
was following in the footsteps of his
mother, Lt. Laura Spelman. The
elder Spelman had been with the agency for
26 years before retiring just a few days after
her son was sworn in.
“I want him to have his own career and
be known as Officer Spelman instead of
Lieutenant Spelman’s son,” the lieutenant
said of passing the family law enforcement
torch along to her son.
When Will was 5, he dreamed of becoming a police
officer. He donned his mother’s police uniform shirt at that
age and posed for a photo; for a long time, that photo was
on his mother’s desk at the police department.
“I am honored that he wanted to follow in my footsteps,”
she said.
For Will Spelman, it is time for him to carve out
his own path at Clearwater Police Department.
“If I work hard enough, maybe I can
achieve the things she did,” the son said.
When the two sat down for a television
interview in March, they talked about what
it was like in a household where Mom went
off to work every day, facing unknown dangers
and getting calls in the middle of the night for a
homicide case. Now that she has retired, her focus has
shifted.
“Now I’m going to have to worry about him for the next 20
years,” the retired lieutenant said.