Why is there such a high rate of alcoholism among cops? Policing is a very stressful job. There is always the chance that a cop will be seriously injured, if not killed in the line of duty. And cops are constantly subjected to a lot of abuse not only by crooks, but also by the every day honest citizen during traffic stops and other on-duty contacts. At the end of a shift, a drink or two, or three is a great way to relieve oneself of that stress. Cops do drink and they drink hard. Unfortunately that can lead to some tragic consequences.
When I was a cop, I used to attend the monthly Southern California Burglary Investigators meetings where investigators from different law enforcement agencies would come together to exchange information, information which often led to the solving of burglaries and the arrest of the perpetrators. Those meetings were almost always held during the evening at either the LA police academy or at the San Diego police academy. Why? Because each academy had bars where they served drinks.
Many of those meetings turned out to be rather comical. Every agency wanted to be among the first to give their presentation because about half way through the meeting the speech started to get somewhat slurred and from then on it got worse and worse. Some of the presenters could barely stand up and it was hard to figure out what they were saying. And then, of course, there was the long drive back home.
The following tragic story was sent to me by a retired police official who asked, ”My question is: Will the city be prosecuted for selling/serving/delivering an alcoholic beverage to an intoxicated person?” Not if the Los Angeles Police and Fire Protective League still owns the LAPD academy, as it did when I used to attend those meetings. (In 1973, that organization split into two unions, one – the Los Angeles Police Protective League - representing the police, the other representing the firefighters.) The bartenders could face prosecution and lawsuits are likely to be filed.
REPORT: COP KILLED IN ACCIDENT WAS DRUNK
B y Dennis Lovelace
myFOXla.com
December 10, 2009
Los Angeles - An LAPD officer killed in a motorcycle accident last week had been drinking at the department's training academy campus the night he died and had a blood-alcohol level "well over" the legal limit, a police official said in remarks reported today.
After the early-morning crash Dec. 3, department officials launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Officer Kenneth Aragon's death to determine whether he was plied with too much alcohol by academy bartenders or got drunk at another location, Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. David Doan, who is overseeing the inquiry, told the Los Angeles Times.
Department officials are also taking a broader look at the long-running tradition of officers drinking at the academy. They have ordered bar staff to undergo retraining on laws on serving alcohol, and put them on notice that undercover officers would be performing compliance checks in the future, Doan told The Times.
Aragon, a 47-year-old, 19-year veteran of the department and father of five, spent several hours drinking and singing karaoke with other officers and guests in a banquet room outfitted with a bar on the upper floor of the academy's main building, Doan said.
They had gathered for `payday Wednesday,' an unofficial but regular event held every other week at the Elysian Park campus to celebrate their latest paycheck.
The officer left the academy about 12:30 a.m. About 90 minutes later, he crashed his motorcycle while driving north on Fletcher Drive, less than three miles from the academy.
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