SOME REALLY OUTSTANDING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS

During my professional career, it has been my pleasure and privilege to have personally known and befriended some really outstanding law enforcement officers. Here are some of those officers:

Matt O'Connor was a California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agent who also served as president of the California Narcotic Officers Association and as president of the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association.

San Bernardino County sheriff's lieutenant Al Stewart, a very dear friend of mine, also served as president of CNOA. Al was head of the San Bernardino Regional Narcotics Task Force when he was shot to death while trying to end the shooting rampage of a parolee who had just killed a California Highway Patrol officer.

There was John Nelson of the Los Angeles Police Department who, based on his former USMC elite Force Recon unit, founded this nation's first SWAT team, the model copied by the FBI and all the other agencies that formed SWAT teams. While I have the utmost respect for Daryl Gates, the late LA police chief was wrong for taking credit as the founder of SWAT. John is the real ‘Father of SWAT’, having formed that unit under the administration of one of Gates’ predecessors, the late great Bill Parker.

Charlie Jackson was the director of a tri-state (New York-New Jersey-Connecticut) interagency narcotics task force and became Assistant Director of Security for the National Football League.

There was John Blackburn, my former partner when we were with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, who went on to become the director of a large multi-agency task force in Colorado, and later a professor at Arizona State University and full-time consultant to the Maricopa County District Attorney's office. John was also appointed by the Governor to head the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, a very prestigious position.

Riverside County Sheriff Ben Clark, our boss and close friend, was a nationally recognized law enforcement innovator. He encouraged me to emphasize the human relations factor in my courses whenever appropriate. Ben, a Catholic himself, displayed a lot of guts for an elected official when he went to see the Bishop and told him that if he didn’t shut down the church’s (illegal) bingo games, he would have his deputies raid the games and arrest all of the participants.

Rick Sander of the Houston Police Department, one of the sharpest persons I've ever known, created and taught the first officer survival training courses in Texas. For many years, Rick served as the administrative sergeant of the HPD narcotics division. Rick’s professionalism ought to serve as a shining example for all law enforcement officers. Since his 'retirement' Rick has served in key positions for a couple of Harris County administrative agencies.

And then there is Frank Miller who, before his retirement, served for over 34 years as a narcotics officer with the Houston Police Department. He was one of my best students ever. I am honored that he considers me to be one of his mentors. The truth is that I learned much more from Frank than he learned from me. Jeannine, Frank's lovely cancer-surviving wife, was also a Houston police officer, serving as a juvenile investigator for 25 years.

Lee Lawrence was a Galveston police officer when he was one of my students. Lee moved on to the Houston Police Department where he now serves as a sergeant with HPD’s SWAT team. Lee, like Rick Sander, is a dedicated professional. He is also a Ranger-qualified paratrooper in the U.S. Army reserves and recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.

Finally there is Trey Rusk. His father was my best friend while he was alive. I watched Trey grow up from a young kid in the ROTC, to a detective with the Webster (Texas) Police Department, and eventually to a lieutenant with the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission. While in command of a unit in the Rio Grande Valley, Trey established a close and effective working relationship between TABC and law enforcement agents from Mexico. Since his ‘retirement’ Trey has been keeping busy as an agent with the Galveston County auto theft task force.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In addition to Al Stewart, Matt O’Connor, John Nelson, John Blackburn and Ben Clark have all passed on and I've lost track of Charlie Jackson since he retired from the NFL.