My Start as a Cop

Back in early 1968 I took a trip with my parents from our home in Salt Lake City, Utah to visit relatives in Berkeley, California. I had attended Berkeley High School earlier and knew my way around that area fairly well.

For some reason that I don't recall, I was looking at the Help Wanted ads in the Berkeley newspaper and noticed an ad for police officers for the Berkeley Police department. As a lark, and because I had nothing better to do, I went down and looked into the position. They had an accelerated hiring process for out-of-town candidates and so I took the various tests, including an interview, medical exam and a physical agility test.

A few weeks later, back in Salt Lake City, I was surprised to be offered a job as a policeman for Berkeley PD. I was barely twenty one years old at the time. The whole thing was too quick and scary and I didn't accept the job.

A few months later, I decided to leave home and move back to the SF Bay area to seek my fortune. My sister and her husband offered to let me live with them for a few weeks until I could get settled. Having been a medical Corpsman in the Army, I had already worked for a time at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City as an Operating Room Technician so I applied for the same job at Providence Hospital in Oakland and was hired. The pay was an even $500 a month which allowed me to get my own place, buy a car and live fairly well.

One day, I noticed an ad in the Oakland Tribune for a Police Dispatcher at the San leandro Police department (San Leandro is just south of Oakland) at a pay rate of around $700. Why not?

So I applied and when I was interviewed by two lieutenants and a sergeant, they said I did real well but asked why I didn't want to be a police officer. They thought I would do real well and the pay was over $900 a month.

So I went through the process and was hired. There were about 80 officers on SLPD and a couple of years later when I took my first Sergeants test, I passed but came out seventh on the list. Sounds good until you realize they make one (two if you're lucky) sergeant(s) off of every list.

My mother had been bugging me to re-enroll at the U of Utah ever since I left home and I finally decided to do so. I quit San leandro PD and moved back home to Salt Lake City.

And so I tried college again (I had tried it already without much success) but found that I missed making my own money. I joined the Salt Lake City Police Department to "work my way through school" I told myself. Pretty soon, I realized I liked police work and didn't like studying. I knew I didn't want to be a police officer for long in SLC, so I applied to LAPD, was hired, and on September 30, 1974, I embarked on the best career I could ever have had.

I have some slightly interesting stories from San Leandro and Salt Lake City and I will share some of those in the future.