Though I’ve always written from the time I was a kid, I didn’t really get started on the submitting, getting rejected and re-submitting merry-go-round until later in life, I’ve had much to be thankful for—and I’m going to start with that first book that I sent out to a publisher.
1. The used portable typewriter my mother gave me. (This was in the days long before computers, copying machines, Internet and emails. I retyped that first 500 page book many times.)
2. My first computer and the dear man who sold it to me and taught me how to use it. (This was in the days of the real floppy discs.) I bought several computers from him and he continued to teach me the intricacies. And I am so thankful for all the time computers have saved me since.
3. The first critique group that listened to my historical family saga and pointed out that I knew nothing about point-of-view. I had no idea what they were talking about.
4. The Internet and email. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why.
5. My mentor, Willma Gore, who was in my 2nd critique group for many years and taught me so much about writing.
6. All the publishers (good and not so good) who took a chance with me. I learned from all of them.
7. The critique group I’ve been in for years and all the members along the way who have taught me so much and helped me make my writing better.
8. My son-in-law, the police officer who got me interested in police work and took me on my first ride-along. And all the law enforcement offices and mystery authors who’ve become my friends since that time—especially those who belong to PSWA.
9. All my writing friends who have given me so much encouragement along the way, including fellow members of Sisters in Crime and MWA.
10. Mike Orenduff of Aakenbaken and Kent who is republishing all of my Rocky Bluff P.D. mysteries, including this new one, Tangled Webs.
11. And to those mystery writers who had a great influence on me long ago like Agatha Christie and Ed McBain.
A special thank you to Thonie for hosting me today.
Marilyn, who writes the RBPD series as F. M. Meredith
Blurb: Too many people are telling lies: The husband of the murder victim and his secretary, the victim’s boss and co-workers in the day care center, her stalker, and Detective Milligan’s daughter.
Bio: F. M. Meredith who is also known as Marilyn once lived in a beach town much like Rocky Bluff. She has many friends and relatives in law enforcement. She’s a member of MWA, 3 chapters of Sisters in Crime and serves on the PSWA Board.
Though I’ve addressed this before, in case you ever wondered why I write police procedurals this answer is on John Wills blog: https://jwillsbooks.com/blog-posts
Practical Joke: I never passed up a chance to lighten the mood and when an opportunity presented itself I usually jumped at it. Now, sometimes it takes planning and some logistics are involved.
Here’s my story. I was eating at a small Italian restaurant with my partner and we were joined by Steve and his probationer, Coleen. We were on our second cup of coffee when Coleen excused herself to go to the bathroom. Coleen had blond hair and blue eyes and was a real looker. It was said she had a crush on Steve but then a lot of probationers had crushes on their first training officer. Coleen came back from the restroom and being a trained police officer, I noticed she had an embarrassed look on her face.
I asked if everything was ok and she said well sort of. I have interrogated hundreds of suspects so I pressed her for an answer. She said, “I’ll tell you but you have to promise not to tell anyone else, I’d be too embarrassed.”
Ok, we all promised!
Coleen said she went to the restroom and common with most women, she had to sit to take care of business. She was sitting and holding her gun belt up off the bathroom floor when in walked a man. This bathroom didn’t have stalls, so Coleen calmly said, “I’ll be done in a moment.”
The man excused himself. She then discovered she had walked into the men’s bathroom. Being a rookie, she missed the men’s room sign on the door and the fact that a urinal is seldom in women’s bathrooms, and well, she’s not detective material, yet!
We kind of laughed but also understood her embarrassment, except for Steve. He started telling other officers around the station. I noticed Coleen’s uneasiness and asked her if she wanted to get even with Steve.
She jumped at the opportunity. I set my plan in motion. As with any good practical joke you may need some help. I included my wife who was often a co-conspirator in my pranks. I had her get an old granny bra from her mother. I slipped the bra into Steve’s riot helmet bag and told my sergeant that we needed to have a helmet bag inspection. The sergeant thought the plan was perfect.
After roll call the sergeant had all the officers line up with their helmet bags in the station car port. The sergeant would inspect every other helmet bag. He finally came to Steve’s. The look on Steve’s face when a woman’s bra fell out of his bag was worth the price of admission. He was speechless and Coleen smiled all day.
Hell, I could have bought an expensive Wonder Bra and it would have been worth it.
I am male/female or any gender. I belong to all ethnic groups. I am early to mid-20’s. About 5’6” to 5’10”, proportionate weight. Excellent health and faculties. I was active in high-school sports, probably a scout and possibly a veteran.
I am a police officer.
I am remembered from school as a “nice” person, pleasant personality, polite and helpful. Some might use the adjectives caring, respectful and a good kid. I am smarter, more diverse and better equipped than my counterparts of a generation ago. I am better armed both weapons and technology; I have a higher level of education and am probably bi-lingual. I am more prepared to fulfill the duties of an officer than my predecessors. And I am much more likely to be killed or injured. I am more likely to face a gun /knife/rock/bottle/be kicked/punched or assaulted by various means.
I am a police officer.
I am chameleon like in my ability to change personalities to deal with any variety of situations that I encounter. I am friend, confidant, confessor, inquisitor, father-figure and any roles that may be needed.
I am a police officer.
The only time I am called “officer” is when I ask for your license and registration, or you need help or I am in court. Otherwise, I am a pig, the man, five-oh, Mountie, the fuzz, party-killer or any of hundreds of others. I work all hours, in all weather. I work holidays and weekends and don’t make long range plans. I do things others wouldn’t or couldn’t.
I am a police officer.
I am expected to counsel persons old enough to be my parents or grandparents, I advise on marital problems and I am single. I am called upon to do distasteful tasks. I must tell a mother or wife that her child or husband is not coming home. I must tell the victim that I will do my best to catch the person who did this to them knowing even if caught the bad guy will escape any “real” punishment.
I am a police officer.
When asked why I became a police officer I might offer the stock answer “to help people” or “job security,” but actually, remembering that character, an “old beat cop,” from one of my favorite novels, Signal Thirty-Two by MacKinlay Kantor, tells his rookie partner, “police work is like having a front row seat to the greatest show in the world.” Let the quote sink in and read the line a second time. My God, how true, how succinct and how very well put. A reviewer reported “you will find a world you never knew existed that makes a police officer a breed apart, this world exists right next to your own but as far out of sight as if it were in another dimension.” It can’t be said any better.
I am a police officer.
I have been chosen. I am no longer citizen or civilian. I speak in measured tones and remain calm in the face of adversity. I remain in control and control every situation or it will control me. I am no longer a face in the crowd asking “what happened?” I am out front. I am in charge and whatever happens depends on me. Good, bad, or indifferent, it is my responsibility and, God, do I love it.
I chase the person as he runs at night throwing items into the hedge. We enter the open back door of a deserted building and skate on the blood, vomit and whatever until I catch him. I must then wait years for nine elderly persons with a combined age to rival Methuselah, split 5-4 to tell me I did something wrong.
I am a police officer.
I read the news or watch it on TV and not recognize the reported version of events even though I was there. Most of you coppers reading this will hopefully identify with some of my words, but there are some who never “got it” and spent their entire careers making themselves and the public miserable. Despite all this, the “great seduction” slowly begins as “the job” becomes all.
I am a police officer and will be one until the day I die.
Police officers have to have many skills to be effective – including how to play hopscotch.
Just watch this video from the Huntington Beach, California, Police Department, posted on Facebook on Wednesday, which shows one of their officers teaching a homeless girl how to play hopscotch.
The sweet moment has a serious lining, according to the department: Officers Wednesday morning were investigating a "suspicious occupied vehicle" when they learned that a mother and her 11-year-old daughter were living out of their car.
While officers worked to arrange housing for the family, one of the officers "began displaying his expertise in hopscotch to the daughter," according to the department.
Video of 'Officer Friendly' playing hopscotch with a homeless girl in the affluent California community of Huntington Beach is all the rage on mainstream media channels, but few noticed the original reason why the cop was there.
Turns out, anonymous neighbors tried to ‘shop’ the girl and her mother to police. They rang the authorities to complain about a “suspicious occupied vehicle” Wednesday, rather than doing the neighborly thing by going out to offer assistance.
Officers Zach Pricer and Scott March were dispatched to “investigate”.
Fortunately, they decided not to criminalize them, which is often the reaction by authorities, but instead March contacted the Homeless Task Force while Pricer started teaching the girl how to hopscotch.
The video, which was filmed by March, has been viewed more than 750,000 times.
Comments below the Facebook post reveal a number of people in the area know the mother and daughter. One commenter recognized them from church and said they had been attending services for years.
“They have lived in their van for a while. Very nice and respectful mom and daughter,” another commenter said.
While most of the comments were gushing with joy at the sight of a police officer playing hopscotch, as opposed to shooting unarmed civilians, another commenter got real.
“Wait. People know this mother/daughter living situation AND they attend a local church AND they've been homeless for years? Why hasn't anyone offered employment or a place to stay for a while, while they save a little money and get back on their feet?” read the Facebook comment.
Huntington Beach is in Orange County, which has one of the most expensive housing markets in the US with values increasing by almost seven percent last year. The median house price in Huntington Beach is $735,500 and the median rent is $3,000 per month.
The oceanside city has a largely hidden community of homeless people who live in tents and cars, or on the streets. The county’s homeless population grew by 5 percent between 2013-2015, according to the Orange County Homeless Count & Survey Report, due to rising rents and a lack of affordable housing.
In Orange County, a person must earn $65,760 to afford a two-bedroom apartment, according to the California Housing Partnership Corp. With California’s minimum wage at $10 per hour, this leaves low-income employees at a shortfall.
Nearly 4,500 homeless people were counted in the survey, which is carried out every two years and reflects a single day in January 2015, half of them sleeping outside of a shelter, a 31 percent increase in two years. 450 of them are military veterans.
Huntington Beach passed a no camping rule in 2012 in reaction to complaints from residents about the shelters created by homeless people on beaches and in parks.
This is not the last Ramblings about eating Code-7.
Most cops need a break from the usual stress of being a police officer. Admit it—every time you see a police car you look to see what they’re doing and if they’ll notice that you’re not wearing your seat belt.
With everybody having a cell phone, Joe Citizen is recording your every move on duty—you’d better watch where you scratch. If they saw a UPS or mail truck they wouldn’t give it a second look.
That’s the life of being a cop!
So you get that break and sit down to eat. Your meal is served and you don’t want to be bothered. You just want to unwind. Some good intended citizen comes up to you as your putting that first fork of dinner into your mouth and says, “I don’t want to interrupt your meal but,” then they do just that! Ten minutes later they say “Well, I’ll let you get back to your meal.” Unfortunately your 23 minute Code-7 is almost over.
By the way—that code-7 is on the officers own time. In the LAPD if you worked an eight hour shift you worked eight hours and twenty-three minutes. If you’re on a twelve-hour shift you worked twelve hours and forty-five minutes. If you didn’t get Code-7, you could put in for overtime but then you had to listen to the wrath of your sergeant for abusing the system.
You would’ve thought that the overtime was coming out of your sergeant’s pay check.
Next week , a few examples of my interrupted code 7’s.
Have you thought of starting another career? There’s a lot of second career information available these days, but not much specifically for police officers. I had a full twenty-six year police career followed by a great second career. Along the way, I learned some things about preparing for a second career and then making the leap into a job after policing. I decided to try a second career for a year and see how I liked it. I ended up leading a team investigating workplace fatalities and other serious accidents. That lasted eleven years.
When my second career ended, I looked around for something else to do. Then I thought: “Maybe I should pass on all that I learned about a second career. The cops of today might be able to use my experience to find one for themselves.”
That’s when I decided to write Second Careers for Street Cops and build a website with the same name. Once I started researching, I quickly found how easy it is to get overwhelmed with advice and information about second careers. Have you ever searched the net or looked in your local library for information about second careers? There is so much it’s hard to figure out where to start. Give it a try and you’ll see what I mean.
I think I can help. My website is focused on high-quality resources about second career planning, rather than general information or fluff pieces that just use up time and add to confusion.
The Second Careers for Street Cops website is there to help today’s cops. Drop by, take a look, and let me know what you think. Look under the Resources tab for lots of great material about designing a resumé, considering the impact of your reputation, networking, online job seeking, and employment trends. Pick a few good sources of second career advice and develop your plan from there. Here’s the link http://secondcareersforstreetcops.com/
If you want to keep up to date on the latest second career information, follow me on Twitter @copsecondcareer. I search the net for good second career material that I think will help street cops who are looking ahead. Then I tweet it. That includes job postings.
I’m just putting the finishing touches on my book and will publish it later in May. Writing a book is a whole different adventure. If you think you’d like to do that for a second career, talk to me first!
Part 2 (part one appeared April 2, 2015)
Beside myself, there were two other recruits from the Sheriff’s Office attending the Academy with me. The largest contingent of recruits was from a Silicon Valley Department of Public Safety. I found it a bit startling when I learned that there were several people in the class who had not been hired by any particular department; in essence, they were “civilians” putting themselves through the training in the hopes that successful completion would make them a more attractive employment prospect. I was also surprised at how small our class was; while I don’t recall the exact number of people who started training, I do know that 24 of us graduated and there was not an especially high attrition rate. Contrary to my fearful expectations, SRJC did indeed run a low stress, twelve-week-long training program whose atmosphere was almost collegial. Having a small class was not necessarily a bad thing because it meant much more one to one interaction with the various instructors. For me, the relaxed training environment took some getting used to and as I was the only recruit with any military training, I often found the lack of discipline and decorum disconcerting.
In 1979, women moving from administrative and non-sworn positions to becoming street officers were still somewhat of a “novelty”. In my class, they numbered less than a half dozen, one of whom was a fellow SCSO recruit. I didn’t find it particularly unsettling to have women among my classmates; they had been moving into “non-traditional” occupational specialties in the Army for some time, so I was quite used to training alongside and working with women. Some of the less enlightened male recruits felt differently and made no effort to hide their opinion that women did not belong, behaving like stereotypical misogynists. One of these “gentlemen” was almost a match to the “Police Academy” character “Mahoney” but with all the negative traits and none of the positive. Like Mahoney, somehow this person managed to make it all the way through training and graduated with the other recruits from his department.
Police Academy 3-Officer Hooks
Nearly every training course I’ve taken has had a cast of characters very much like those in the Police Academy movies. There always seemed to be a “Tackleberry” type; the borderline super-macho personality disorder who carried a virtual arsenal in the trunk of his car, always wore camouflage fatigues, often reckless and overeager. In most of the coed classes I been in, there was usually someone very much like the character “Hooks”; a female trainee soft of voice, uncertain of her abilities, and often deferring to men. Invariably there was someone like “Hightower”, the huge muscular guy who was smarter that he appeared, gentler than he seemed and loyal as a puppy dog to his friends. Finally there invariably seemed to be someone like the characters “Sweetchuck” and “Fackler”; this was the guy who tripped over his own feet, walked into closed doors, had a voice that cracked when under stress, lacked a scintilla of common sense and invariably either shot himself in the foot or a fellow classmate in the arse. Looking back, each in their own way, made the training far more interesting as well as more memorable, though at the time I sure many of us considered them with less kindly thoughts.
Having just come out of the Army where highly strenuous physical fitness standards were de rigueur, I found the “PT” at the Academy less than challenging. Unlike the other subject areas, such as criminal law, criminalistics, and firearms, our class did not have an instructor dedicated to physical conditioning. To be sure, we had someone to teach weaponless or hand to hand tactics but no one was assigned for every day physical training or “PT,” something which I had practically lived by over the prior four years in the Army. More often than not, our PT consisted of volleyball or disorganized workouts in the weight room. We did do some running, usually no more than two miles and generally less, during which time nearly everyone complained. For me at that time, a mile run was a warm up as I had been used to running up to five miles in full combat gear in under 40 minutes. I cannot recall if we had to pass a PT test to graduate beyond completing an obstacle course within a specified time frame. I thought then as I do now that we rendered a disservice with such lackadaisical physical conditioning. Aside from the obvious health benefits, maintaining a high state of physical conditioning is essential in surviving street encounters from fist fights to foot pursuits to the use of deadly force. I wasn’t the only recruit that was disconcerted by this and I do know it eventually changed for the better.
Contrary to Zed’s bit of wisdom, my academy class spent a great deal of time in the classroom receiving instruction on subjects ranging from the obvious, such as criminal law to less considered but critical report writing. However, looking back over 35 years later, the very first place to which my Field Training Officer took me, when I was with the Sheriff’s Office, was a Winchell’s Donut shop. Much as I hate to admit it, even to this day many a cop visits the local donut eatery because it’s fast and the coffee is always hot; I guess there was a bit of truth to what Zed had to say.
Police Cadets
Donuts aside, we were about to get a great deal of information distilled and condensed into a 12 week time frame. Hours were spent on learning the fundamentals of California Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure. Things that now still seem so basic were new to many of us back then, such as the differences between statutory and case law–both of which we needed to know. What were felony, misdemeanor and infraction type of crimes? We committed to memory the elements of the more commonly used sections of the Penal Code, such as 211 P.C. which is robbery or 459 P.C. which is burglary. We had to know the applicable sections of the Business and Professions Code, particularly those parts dealing with alcoholic beverages. There were the parts of the Health and Safety Code that dealt with drugs, legal and illicit. We had to know the parts of the Welfare and Institutions Code some of which dealt with children and psychiatric cases. Then there was the California Vehicle Code, which covered everything from driving while intoxicated to what color the front turn signals on a particular year car have to be.
All those various codes and laws were just really a foundation and a starting point. Knowing what constituted a violation of a particular law was just part of the process. There followed training on the complex laws governing arrest, probable cause to detain versus probable cause to arrest. We had to know the most up to date court decisions and laws governing arrest, search and seizure. Then there were the courts; traffic, municipal and superior. As a peace officer, you had to know the differences between them and what type of case went to what court. Beyond that, we had to have a working knowledge of how the criminal justice system functioned, from the filing of a criminal complaint to an arraignment to a court or jury trial. If that wasn’t complex enough, there were separate systems for adult and juveniles.
I was not the only one with a college background in Criminal Justice and though we were familiar with much of the material, there was still much that was new in some manner. It was all coming at us fast and furious. Fortunately, there was plenty of practical, hands-on training that got us out of the classroom to stretch our legs and shake out the cobwebs that inevitably formed in our minds. Naturally, we all looked forward to firearms training. Levels of experience with firearms varied greatly among us. Many grew up around guns through hunting and other sporting activities. As a result of my Army training, I had a familiarity with a very wide assortment of weapons, though it seemed highly unlikely I would have need of an anti-tank missile system as a Deputy Sheriff. As a deputy, my duty weapon was going to be a Smith and Wesson Model 66, .357 magnum revolver, which took some adjustment, as my sidearm while in the Military Police was the classic military Model 1911, .45 semi-automatic pistol. In the late seventies and early eighties, firearm training was on the cusp of a revolution, both in technology and theory. I was fortunate to have been exposed to some of it while in the Army. There was interactive training with lasers giving immediate feedback under simulated combat conditions; automated targets made to look like human silhouettes; and shooting in a variety of conditions both in lighting and weather. Our instructors were some of the best, most knowledgeable military people in the world when it came to firearms. Gone were the days of plinking away at a circular stationary target some hundred yards away.
Witchita, Kansas Police Recruit shooting training
Back to my Academy firearms training, I wasn’t expecting our instructor to be someone who split his time between firefighting and police work in the South Bay. Understand that I’m not saying he was a poor instructor; it just was not what I was expecting. While I had qualified “Expert” with nearly every Infantry weapon in the Army, I was only shooting just slightly above average with that .357 pistol. It wasn’t until several years later, when I was a Petaluma Police Officer, a range master discovered while right-handed, I was left eye dominant, which had a great effect on my pistol shooting accuracy. In addition to the live fire range, we also received instruction in what was called “Shoot-Don’t Shoot”, the idea being to develop situational awareness and judgment when employing deadly force. In 1979, our “state of the art” technology for the practical portion of this training consisted of a video projector which showed a scenario on a butcher paper screen and a pistol that fired wax bullets. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that felt a bit foolish yelling “Freeze!” at that butcher paper.
Read the conclusion of Police Academy Redux on April 9, 2015
Traffic Officer Gerry Goldshine aka T-36 Petaluma Police Department mid-1980’s
Father David Powell will head the the Santa Rosa Police Chaplaincy Program; he is a former Oakland cop.
This article appeared in my local newspaper, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on Sunday, March 22, 2015. It adds a dimension to police officer training that isn’t often publicized. I consider this an insightful scrap of information to the help the public make informed decisions about police involved shooting. What he doesn’t say is what every law enforcement officer knows, “If a cop gets killed/shot/disabled, he won’t be able to help citizens who are in need.”
–Thonie
The training involved facing realistic filmed reproductions of actual situations in which life and death decisions were made by police officers in the past. The trainee was provided with a police sidearm from which electronically accurate laser beams could be fired at the projected simulations so one could see where the “bullets” actually hit the life-sized images on the screen. Also, the simulator “suspects” fire back at the trainees.
The volunteer chaplain candidates going through this ordeal were compassionate folk, but they regularly killed dozens of civilians during sessions in the simulator. They all failed to turn in perfect scores and, more often than not, were shot themselves.
We might examine some of the forces that influence a typical police officer who encounters a situation that compels a decision whether or not to use deadly force.
First, there is the paradox that in a peaceful community police don’t react well because they lack the experience of incidents of violence as an officer in a large city.
Second, Andy Lopez, the victim of the deputy- involved shooting near Santa Rosa on Oct. 22, 2013, was a teenager. In America today, where would you expect to encounter a teenager with an assault rifle? The rifle looked especially real because the orange plastic cap that was meant to identify it as a toy had been gone. Also, a common experience of police is that if a suspect is a teenager, he or she is more likely to shoot than an adult.
Third, what are the moral priorities among the choices open to an officer? Popular opinion is that the officer should hold his fire until the suspect fires first. This is the legacy of a century of Hollywood. In any Hollywood drama, the villain shoots first, and the hero has to hold his or her fire until he or she is shot at. But is that a morally defensible policy for real-life situations? Isn’t a police officer’s first moral concern to stay alive so he can come home to his wife and kids and return to the job the next day? His second priority is the protection of citizens. His third priority is to try to avoid deadly force in achieving the first two priorities. All three priorities must reflect obedience to the laws of the land.
The emotional burden this moral choice puts on officers is enormous. If Deputy Erick Gelhaus’ case is typical, he has only a 20 percent chance of lasting in his career more than two years. My heart goes out to Andy and his family, but I also pray that God will give this deputy some peace.
When I was a police officer in Oakland in the late 1950s and early ’60s, youth still had some respect for police officers. Today, that is less the case. Peer pressure on youth today is to defy authority. In the language of teens it’s called “attitude.”
Peer pressure heavily weighs on teens to demonstrate bravado (attitude) when encountered by police. But police fear losing control when confronted by a teen with a defiant attitude. It is a dangerous situation that has become all too common.
The Rev. David R. Powell of Sebastopol, former executive director of Sonoma County’s Law Enforcement Chaplaincy Service, has 30 years of law enforcement experience.
OFFICER DOWN-SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT- San Jose Mercury News Staff writers Eric Kurhi and Mark Gomez contributed to this report.
Law enforcement officers have an area blocked off as they search for a suspect who shot and killed a San Jose police officer Tuesday, March 24, 2015, in an exchange of gunfire in San Jose, Calif. Police were searching in an area near Senter and Umbarger roads. (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group)
Photos: San Jose police officer killed in exchange of gunfire
SAN JOSE — A 14-year veteran San Jose police officer was killed Tuesday evening in a dramatic series of events that began with a call about a suicidal man and ended when police used explosives and a robot to breach the suspect’s apartment, but found him dead.
The killing of Officer Michael Johnson was the department’s first line-of-duty death in 14 years. He was fatally wounded as he responded to an apartment complex in the 2600 block of Senter Road around 6:48 p.m. Tuesday.
Johnson was the 12th SJPD officer killed in the department’s 166-year history. He was a field training officer at the time of his death.
Now, the SJPD community is reeling from an experience it has been spared from for nearly a decade and a half: mourning the loss of a comrade who gave his life to protecting the public.
“Officers are obviously crying, grieving, they will obviously do so for some time. Our hearts, our prayers go out with the family of Michael, our brother. This is a very difficult time right now,” police spokesman Officer Albert Morales said early Wednesday. “Rest assured we’ll keep him in our memories as we go out there and continue to do the job we loved to do and I’m sure that he loved to do.”
Adding to the heartache was the fact Johnson came from the same police academy class as Jeffrey Fontana, the last officer killed in the line of duty. Fontana was in his rookie year on the force when he was shot to death during a high-risk vehicle stop in South San Jose on October 28, 2001.
“As a chief this is not something we would ever want to do,” San Jose police Chief Larry Esquivel said at a news conference late Tuesday. “It’s a sad day for law enforcement and for the police department and the community.”
A statement from the San Jose Police Officers Association said all officers were grieving for Johnson.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Johnson’s family and friends,” the union said. “(Johnson) was tragically struck down in the prime of his life protecting and serving the residents of San Jose.”
Scott Dunham, 57, of San Jose, is being sought in connection with the shooting death of a San Jose police officer on Tuesday, March 24, 2015. (San Jose Police) ( SAN JOSE POLICE )
Mayor Sam Liccardo, who added that he offered condolences to the slain officer’s family on behalf of the city, said, “This is San Jose’s darkest hour. This strikes the heart of all of us in San Jose and throughout the region.”
Liccardo said in a tweet that Johnson was engaged to be married.
Police identified the suspect in Johnson’s slaying late Tuesday as Scott Dunham, 57. Officials launched a massive manhunt after the attack with a detail consisting of dozens of officers and the MERGE (SWAT) unit, who all swarmed the area of Senter and Umbarger roads to find the gunman.
Nearby homes were evacuated as officers and equipment — including armored vehicles and a helicopter — were summoned from neighboring police agencies, including the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale police, and the California Highway Patrol.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, center, speaks during a press conference regarding the San Jose police officer killed earlier in the day in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, March 24, 2015. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) ( Nhat V. Meyer )
The manhunt continued for hours, with police eventually converging on the building that housed Dunham’s apartment. Officials said around 11 p.m. that they believed that Dunham might still be inside the apartment, but they were also chasing down leads that indicated he might be elsewhere.
Police breached his apartment using explosives around 1:30 a.m., then began a slow, exhaustive search using a robot with a camera. Officers at the scene confirmed that Dunham had been found dead on the apartment’s balcony shortly before 3:30 a.m.
It was not immediately clear how Dunham had died, though police said he had suffered at least one gunshot wound. Police reported earlier that he may have been wounded during the exchange of gunfire that killed Johnson. Esquivel acknowledged the possibility that Dunham might have been dead for most of the standoff, as officers never made contact with him after the initial clash, and there was no subsequent gunfire.
San Jose officers were initially called at 6:48 p.m. Tuesday by a female family member who said that Dunham was intoxicated, despondent and possibly meant to harm himself or others, Esquivel said. As the officers approached the apartment building on Senter Road and spotted a person on a balcony, they were fired upon without warning.
Police dispatch recordings show that officers told dispatchers they believed the man they were searching for had one or two handguns in the apartment.
At one point, as they approach the apartment, an officer says “we have movement from the blinds at the apartment.”
An officer calmly reports that a male has stepped out onto the balcony, describing him as having gray hair, a gray mustache and a black T-shirt. Seconds later, the “shots fired” call can be heard, followed almost immediately by the “officer down” call.
Dispatchers immediately called for the area to be secured and put out a citywide call for assistance. Another officer reported that shots were fired at the suspect, and that he possibly “went down as well.” Esquivel confirmed the gunfire exchange and the possibility that Dunham was wounded.
“This person had the nerve, the audacity, to shoot at our officers who were on a call for assistance,” Esquivel said.
An outpouring of grief flowed from both members of the public and law enforcement agencies throughout California and across the nation Tuesday night. Hundreds of social media users sent their condolences to San Jose police through the department’s Twitter account.
“It’s extremely painful and shocking,” said Councilman Tam Nguyen, who represents District 7, where the shooting occurred. “I’m worried for the safety of other officers, he’s still at large and still very dangerous.”
Tam said he lived in the neighborhood and was not going home because of the manhunt, but driving around and waiting to hear more from police.
“I want to let them concentrate on their own safety and the safety of others,” he said.
When a good man leaves the job and retires to a better life, many are jealous, some are pleased, and yet others, who may have already retired, wonder. We wonder if those active cops know what they are leaving behind, because we already know. We know for example, that after a lifetime of camaraderie that few experience, it will remain as a longing for those past times. We know in the law enforcement life there is a fellowship which lasts long after the uniforms are hung up in the back of the closet. We know even if he throws them away, they will be on him with every step and breathe that remains in his frame. We also know how the very bearing of the man speaks of what he was and in his heart still is.
These are the burdens of the job. You will still look at people suspiciously, still see what others do not see or choose to ignore, and always will look at the rest of the law enforcement world with a respect for what they do — only grown in a lifetime of knowing. Never think for one moment you are escaping from the life. You are only escaping the job and we are merely allowing you to leave active duty.
So what I wish for you is that whenever you ease into retirement, in your heart you never forget for one moment that Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called children of God, and you are still a member of the greatest fraternity the world has ever known.
By Marilyn Meredith
Bio: F. M. Meredith who is also known as Marilyn once lived in a beach town much like Rocky Bluff. She has many friends and relatives in law enforcement. She’s a member of MWA, 3 chapters of Sisters in Crime and serves on the PSWA Board.
I asked if everything was ok and she said well sort of. I have interrogated hundreds of suspects so I pressed her for an answer. She said, “I’ll tell you but you have to promise not to tell anyone else, I’d be too embarrassed.”
After roll call the sergeant had all the officers line up with their helmet bags in the station car port. The sergeant would inspect every other helmet bag. He finally came to Steve’s. The look on Steve’s face when a woman’s bra fell out of his bag was worth the price of admission. He was speechless and Coleen smiled all day. 
