Mission Police Station was a dump. Unlike its predecessor over in the industrial part of the District that had its visual  and police cultural foundations in the Gothic Pillar examples of the Boston or New York City police precinct houses...

Being on the first San Francisco BART subway train on any given morning can sometimes be interesting. Most regular commuters are half awake, drinking hot coffee out of carefully concealed paper cups, reading newspapers, or sleeping. However... At that period...

NOTE:  In the Law Enforcement profession, as in many other endeavors , sometimes fiction is more interesting than the truth, and big salacious rumors are sometimes more fun to relate , especially if they involve high ranking  mucky-mucks, our so-called...

Specifically, during my long career in Law enforcement, as in my life in general, if something appears to be easy, fun, and occasionally profitable, it turns out to be anything but. Scene: San Francisco’s Potrero Police Station My first hint:...

Like any of the three-dimensional characters in a classic Bogart movie, or from a persona in a stage play once fleshed out in a darkened theatre, some of the people you meet working as a big city foot-beat cop stay...

In 1980, the city of San Francisco announced that it was opening up unrestricted applications for police officers. Over 3,000 people responded, which led to block long lines of applicants waiting to take written exams, physical agility testing, and weird...

“Stress relief.” … That’s what they called it in the SFPD Academy during the too short academic introduction to urban police work. It was a required topic during your in-service training every 24 months as well. We also had roll...

The set-up Every cop has a place in their sector or on their beat that is the most memorable. It should be a good place to grab a cup of coffee and zone out while writing reports. The place for...

The above quote was originally attributed to a British politician named Gladstone circa 1868, but to a student of American socio-political history such as myself, it came most singingly prominent when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote it down while...

If you are doing traffic enforcement, sooner or later you are going to get a "runner." If you are going to pursue these minor-league violators, you have to keep in mind: The safety of the general motoring and pedestrian public....