The Retired Cop

Memo from 2002 I wrote this memo several years ago.  It was written after I had a close call.  I'm posting it here, because there are working cops who read this blog and everyone can use a little reminder now and then. 8-14-2002 This job involves a lot of luck. The other night I was lucky, unlucky, really lucky, really unlucky and finally really, reall lucky. A LBPD cop was shot at and the suspect was believed northbound on the 405 Fwy. I went code 5 on the 405 at Carson St. I saw a car that matched the description (to my standards anyway). That was lucky. A felony T-stop was done, another deputy searched the suspect and he was placed in the backseat of my black and white. Turned out it wasn't the suspect. That was unlucky. But Pat hunt got into my black and white and ran the vin and the suspect for me. Turned out the guy's CDL was suspended.....oh yeah and the car was stolen. That was really lucky. When I got the suspect into the booking cage, I did the usual search

Case #30 - re The People vs Rick Cocke and Walt Bosc (extraterrestrials aren't the only ones into anal probing)      Basically, a training officer's job, is to take a trainee and teach him to apply what he learned in the academy to the real world.  The normal training period is three months with one training officer, followed by two months with a second training officer, followed by a month in a one person car, while being monitored by your second training officer.  If a trainee isn't meeting the standard of performance in the various areas of evaluation, like officer safety, report writing, etc., then he can be placed on extended training, sent back to the jail, or fired.  A training officer's job can, theoretically, be more difficult on the sheriff's department than it is on a regular police agency.  That's because a regular police agency training officer, gets a trainee who is fresh out of the academy, with everything he was taught fresh in his memory.  An

Case #29 - The People vs The Government of Belize (stop da thiefin', mon) This story has been deleted pending an approval from the person it is about. He doesn't live in the U.S.

Recollections of the Marne Ranger Course So recently, I came across some old photos from my days in the army.  Prior to the L.A. Sheriff's Department hiring me, I was in the U.S.Army.  My first duty station was in the 851st ASA of the 3rd Infantry Division, in, what was then, West Germany.  In case you haven't heard, East and West Germany are now just plain old Germany again.  On the other hand, maybe you didn't know Germany was once divided? I got to West Germany in mid 1981 and left in mid 1983, for the Presidio San Francisco, where I finished out my time. Before I get into this story, I think I should add a little pertinent history as background, so you can appreciate our mindset at the time.  When I got there the 851st A.S.A. Company (Army Security Agency) was in the process of being combined with the 3rd M.I. Company (Military Intelligence) to form the 103rd M.I. Battalion.  When they existed, these units were all part of the 3rd Infantry Division.  At the time,

Case #28 - The People vs Cody (Aero Bureau visits Area 5150) (The following is our first case by a guest judge.  All stand for my former partner, the Honorable Jon Brick) THE CASE OF CODY VS THE ALIENS In 1998 I was working as a training officer / pilot at Aero Bureau.  Deputies newly assigned to Aero from patrol stations, went through a 6 month training program, which if successfully completed, qualified them as helicopter observers, or Tactical Flight Deputies (TFD's) as they were later called.  I was assigned a new trainee named "Cody".  He had flown with another T.O. for a couple weeks, but due to some scheduling changes he was now going to be assigned to me for training. I actually knew Cody from when I worked patrol at Carson Station, and I was looking forward to having him as a partner.  It was sort of a reversal of positions really, because when I first went out to Carson Station as a trainee, Cody was already a patrol training officer.  I looked up to him

Case #27 - re The People vs Mike Chacon (The spoonmaster's assistant) One EM shift, back when Carson’s area went up to 120th St, Mike "Chaka" Chacon had a little caper at the Blue Light Motel. Mike had been fortunate and detained a crackhead outside of one of the rooms. Unfortunately the crackhead didn’t have any dope on him. Fortunately, the crackhead had a key to one of the motel rooms. Mike was sure the cluck had dope in the room. Unfortunately, he was a one man car and he couldn’t safely go into the room with a suspect alone, not knowing who else might be in the room. Fortunately, Deputy Luis Nunez, aka "the Little Godfather", was nearby and responded to Mike’s request for backup. The two deputies went into the motel room, with the crackhead's permission of course. Anyway, and unfortunately, a female companion of the crackhead was already in the room, threw some rock cocaine into the toilet and flushed it. Fortunately,