The sun decided to come out, again – after an almost half an inch of rain last night - in our neck of the woods.  Winds were whipping and the leaves were blowing as the day started warming up.

We had three visitors to the garden, a doe and twin fawns, they have become pretty brazen lately, they walked back up the hill going right by the yard fence.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Carla has been working in the kitchen all morning, pulling out decorations to go on the window sills, etc.

Got the turkey, hoping it will thaw out without me having to use water, and the ham, kids are bringing a lot of the extras. 

With Deed and Teresa’s hours it is harder and harder to get us together – and that doesn’t include the rest of the family members who have pressing obligations and can’t make more visits.

Carla has to work very early on Wednesday, then back to work Friday morning – like a couple others – so travel, even if so inclined, is too much to expect.

Anyway, looking forward to being with those that will be able to make it.

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Chapter 15

Some Officers I Remember

In the course of my employment with the City of The Dalles, there were either 53 or 55 officers, can’t remember now, which, that left the department.

Some retired, some were discharged for cause, some didn’t make probation and some went on to other departments on the west side of the Cascades where salaries were much higher.

Many of those that left rose in rank in their new departments at least a couple became Chiefs of their department.

Police work is a challenging profession and very few are cut out for it.  Many burn out, many leave because they couldn’t afford to live on the salary, many just weren’t able to meet the requirements during probation, and unfortunately some were dishonest or made some very bad decisions and had to be fired.

The Dalles, like many small communities, became training departments for larger departments. 

The officer would go to the academy on our ticket, get his certification on our ticket, and then go to larger agencies with that certification in hand and be hired as an experienced officer.

To my knowledge all of those that left our department and went to another department stayed in the profession, they were good officers.

We had at least one that came to us from a smaller department, but that was a rarity for us.  That one stayed with the department and was eventually promoted to the well-deserved position of Chief and served the City well in that position for over twenty years.

When I came onto the department virtually every officer had either a second job or skill to raise money elsewhere, or the wife was working full-time.  It was the only way to make ends meet.

I took a cut in pay when I joined as well as a much lower benefit program.  Since Carla and I had decided she would stay home while our children were young, I took odd jobs.

I worked at a furniture store, a gas station and went back to work, part-time at Safeway’s.  There are times I still wake up in the morning and think I have to head down to the store to work, usually after some kind of dream.

But, I also believed that police officers need to be in the schools and need to be volunteers in the community.

I spent many hours in the schools; most of it was on my own time, because the City couldn’t afford an officer in the schools program.  I was on a number of volunteer boards through the years as well as being active in my church.

I was not alone in my commitment to the community; many of our officers were involved in some form or another in helping to make their home town a better place for their family and by extension the community at large.

Through the years the selection of officers became more formal.

When I was hired, I am not sure how much background they did.

I had applied for the Reserve Program and it was a few months before I heard anything.

One day we had a shoplifter at the store.  I chased him down while a clerk called the department.  I stopped the man who started to fight me, I took him down and a few seconds later a police car arrived and took him into custody.

Within a week I was called in and made a Reserve Officer.

As mentioned before I had to go through a physical agility test, which hadn’t been done before and a physical test that was standard procedure.  I then went before a Civil Service Oral Board, made up of people within the community that served on the City’s Civil Service Board and at least one officer.

I was then called to come in as a full-time officer.  I asked to give two weeks’ notice to the store and then started on the first of the month.

That first year I went from being the newest hirer to having five other officers hired after me.  For a seventeen member department that was a lot of turn over.

As time went on the department, as was most cities, developed a better screening program.  Not only were the test I went through conducted, but we added psychological tests and we sent officers out to do more thorough back ground checks, contacting the list of references in person and others that might know something about the applicant.

In trying to make the process quicker, and not having to wait for an opening in the department, we would announce that we were developing a list of qualified applicants.

Then when the applications came in we would give them the written test, and sometimes an officer’s oral board to develop a list of people to call and further investigate when an opening occurred.

We had a problem, we were on the east side of the mountains and our pay was lower.  In addition when a department advertises so they can create a list, vs. having an opening to fill most people don’t come.

We had several people that did come, but it was more to gain some experience in testing and going through the Oral Board and most of those that we felt were good prospects found other departments before we had an opening.

That does not mean we didn’t have good officers, we did.  Most of us that came to the department and stayed, came because we wanted to be on the east side of the Cascades and like this community.

We did have some interesting characters.

I can recall an officer, Jerry, who had applied for the Portland Police Bureau, but had been turned down.

He became an outstanding officer for our department, and retired here.

Departments have personalities usually in tune with the personality of the community they are serving in. 

While one department may have turned down someone, it doesn’t mean they don’t have potential, it just means that for that department it wasn’t the right fit.

In Jerry’s case it wasn’t the right fit.  Which was to our good fortune; but even then there was questions about him by some of the supervisor’s.

I had worked with this man for several weeks, even though I was still a year, maybe two, years on the department I became his training officer.

We worked Graveyard.  It seems when anything major came down it would be just him, me and maybe another officer – supervisors were not on duty.

We handled attempted suicides, assaults, resisting arrests and other incidents that the supervisor’s hadn’t seen. 

They had not seen him in action.  I had.  When we went into a tense situation it was like things slowed down for him.  Every move, every comment was well thought out and effective.

My reviews showed that; but the supervisors hadn’t seen what I had seen and were glossing over my comments.

When I was told they were concerned about him and were considering terminating his probation because they didn’t want to send him to the Academy, and then having to terminate him later.  They didn’t want to expend that much time and money on him.

The biggest concern they had was that he didn’t seem to be interested, he rarely asked questions.

We had just terminated another probationer because of similar actions.  However, that was warranted, the final straw occurred when his training officer made a traffic stop.

The standard procedure when a two man car stops a vehicle is the driver walks up to the driver’s door and makes contact.  The other officer is to walk up on the passenger side and take a stance where he is covering the first officer.

It doesn’t matter if it is a little old lady who appears harmless, that is the standard practice and this probationer knew that.

The training officer made the stop, the probationer was to back him up.  The driver of the car was hostile, it didn’t amount to much, but he was belligerent and giving the officer a hard time.

The officer stepped back to run the driver’s license and checks for warrants and saw his probationer, sitting in the car smoking a pipe.  He was gone the next day.

The supervisors were concerned that Jerry had the same attitude.  I assured them he did not and related a lot of the things I had put into his review.  I felt he was well worth saving.  Based on my evaluations and comments they went ahead and let him go to the Academy.

I was proven correct.  I did tell him the supervisors’ concerns and he said that when he came on he decided to observe and not ask a bunch of questions; it was just his way.

Through the years he proved to be a resourceful and effective officer.  We had cases where we weren’t quite sure if there was a statute covering conduct of a suspect when he would pull something out of his memory and come up with the charge.

We had a case where a man had been obnoxious in a bar and had been escorted out by the owner.  A few minutes later he came back in.  We were called and arrived at the bar, seeing the suspect backed up against a wall and the owner standing in front of him.

The owner just wanted him put out and din not file any charges at that time. 

Jerry took the lead, it was his area, and talked to the suspect telling him if he came back in we would arrest him for criminal trespass. While he was talking to him he noticed a bulge under his coat – so he frisked him.

The man had gone out to his truck and pulled out a hammer, putting it in the belt of his pants, under his jacket before going back in.

Jerry didn’t hesitate for a second, he charged the man with carrying a dangerous weapon with intent to use – a felony.

Later, several of us asked how he pulled that out, we all knew that anything can be used as a dangerous weapon (as opposed to a deadly weapon like a gun or knife, a dangerous weapon is anything else if used as a weapon could cause injury – like a hammer, but even an ash tray thrown at a person is technically a dangerous weapon – yep, it happened, and yep with the totality of the situation the person was arrested for that.)

He said, basically, it just came to him when he saw it.  Now, maybe one of of us, in time, would have thought of that, I for one hadn’t, but it shows how is mind works.

Jerry retired as a Sergeant, many years later.

To be continued:

Copyright November 20, 2017 Art Labrousse

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1 Corinthians 15:55-58   KJV  “ O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

It is so easy for us to lose confidence in ourselves when our work doesn’t seem to be doing any good.

When we pray or witness with others it is as if we are getting nowhere, no one is listening, paying attention or even cares it would seem.

But, the task for us is to be faithful, not to do the Holy Spirit’s work of speaking within the heart and soul of a person.

God is using us, and while we may never see the results of our labor, or at least not as we expect it, God does.

And that is all that matters.

Later, Art (-: