Becoming A Cop (Amended)

As I look back on my life and realize what great experiences I've had as a policeman, I sometimes think about how it happened in the first place.

I suppose Jack Webb deserves some of the credit. Until 1974 I never even thought about being a Los Angeles Police Officer. Until 1969, I never thought about being a police officer anywhere.

When I came home from my mission in 1967, I began doing what a lot of RMs do. I went to school at the University of Utah and loved everything but going to class. I worked at ZCMI in downtown Salt Lake City selling men's shoes. I also took a shot at working as an Operating Room "Scrub" technician at Holy Cross Hospital in SLC. That was interesting work and I got into it based on my military training as a Medical Specialist in the US Army.

"Scrub Techs" actually scrub (hands, wrists and forearms) and dress up in sterile garb and pass instruments to surgeons performing surgery. I worked with surgeons doing everything from knee surgery (actually caused me to faint once), to ear surgery to C Sections. Extremely interesting work.

Once, during a visit to Berkeley, California with my parents to visit my Dad's relatives, I happened to see an ad in the paper for Berkeley Police Officers. On a lark, I went down to the police station and talked to them. One thing led to another. They had a condensed application process for out-of-state applicants so I plowed on with my head sort of swimming. We went home to SLC and a few days later BPD notified me that I was accepted and could become a Berkeley Cop.

This was all too much for my 21 year old brain and I let that opportunity slip away. That was, in fact, the first time I had ever thought about being a police officer.

A few weeks went by and a girl I had been dating sort of rejected me (actually she got engaged to someone else). I thought that a change of scenery was in order. My sister, Beth Merrill, who lived with her husband in Castro Valley, California, told me I could stay with her for awhile if I wanted to seek my fortune in the Bay Area so I sold my trombone, packed a few things in my very own 1960 Mercury Comet and took off for California.

In Winnemucca, Nevada, I had two flat tires within a mile of each other (I guess my spare wasn't much good) so I used a few of my precious dollars to buy two used tires, and onward I went.

Upon getting settled in Cal, I sought employment as a Operating Room (Scrub) Tech and was hired at Washington Hospital in Fremont. I can't remember how much I made there but I DO recall that when I had a chance to move to Providence Hospital in Oakland for $500 a month, I jumped all over it.

After I started making some money, I moved into my own little one room rustic cottage. I doubt if I could find it now (if it's still around) but it was in Oakland and was one of several such cottages in a shady little group all belonging to one owner. My recollection was that it was a pretty cool set up.

So, I'm reading the paper one day and I see an ad for a Police Radio Dispatcher for the San Leandro Police Department. The pay was significantly north of the $500 I was earning as an OR Tech so I applied. When I took the oral interview (I still remember the three men who interviewed me, Lt. Bob Wilson, Lt. Joe Beck and Sergeant Jim Fugate)and it was just about over with, Lt. Wilson said that they only had one question for me: Why didn't I want to be a police officer rather than being a dispatcher?

By this time the thought of being a cop was not as daunting as it had been the previous year (in Berkeley), so I agreed to go through the process. I was hired and started at nearly $800 a month.

I worked for SLPD (San Leandro) for a few years and even took the first Sergeant's test I was eligible to take. I actually passed and came in number seven on the list. That sounds really good until you realize that there were only about 90 cops of all ranks on SLPD and seven was the total number of us who passed the test at all. So whereas on LAPD (9,000 cops) being seventh on the list would have meant nearly instant promotion, on SLPD there was absolutely no possibility.

While all of these fun things were happening, my dear mother constantly made it clear that to her, being a cop was slightly better than being a criminal. I was far short of reaching my my potential and I should really try to get a college degree, etc. As a side note I DO believe that college is good and it would have opened a lot of doors for me even in my law enforcement career, but most of the people I know who actually graduated from college didn't do as well in their careers as I did when one considers wages, benefits, retirement, etc.

I finally agreed to move home (SLC) and try the college thing again and did so in 1972. I soon found that I really missed having my own income so, while attending classes at the U of Utah, I first tried selling shoes again, this time at J C Penney, a Cottonwood Mall and when that didn't seem exciting enough I told myself "I'll join the Salt Lake City Police Department while I continue my education."

I tried it for awhile (school, SLCPD). In California we already had computerized warrants and DMV info access. We could pick up our radio and get all sorts of useful information by asking our dispatcher who simply got it all from her (or his) computer. In Salt Lake City, if I wanted to check a suspect for warrants the dispatcher had to call someone who looked in a hand-written book. Sometimes the information was actually accurate. For DMV info, the Salt Lake City Police Department had to telephone the State offices and someone there looked it up. Talk about circling the wagons. I finally realized that what I wanted most was to be a cop and where I would really like to do that is where Jack Webb (Adam 12 and Dragnet) made it look like the greatest place on earth to do it. So I applied to LAPD and was hired.

September 28, 1974, was my last official day as Salt Lake City cop making a little more money than I had at Providence Hospital and I started the LAPD Academy on September 30, 1974, earning about $1,000 (nearly double).

And that's how I became an LA Cop. I know there are cops who yield to various temptations of greed and excessive force and we have some of that on our Department. But we still don't condone it and we do a good job of fixing those problems whenever they arise. On Friday, July 18, 2008, at about 4:30 PM, I'll go EOW (End of watch) for the final time, nearly thirty-four years after that first day at the Academy. I am as proud as I can be of having been a part of the Los Angeles Police Department and there will be much about it I will miss.