Graphic Content Warning:

Old and new, big and small, good and bad – contrasts have a way of bringing clarity. And within contrasts we can still see similarities.

My policing experience was full of contrasts – and similarities. My first few years wearing a badge and toting a gun were spent in the roughly 750 officer strong Norfolk Police Department in Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay.

Norfolk and the surrounding areas had the type of policing activities one would expect in any heavily populated urban environment. Norfolk PD is also one of the oldest police departments in the country tracing its official beginnings to 1797.

My last ten years behind the badge were spent in the Albemarle County Police Department serving a more rural area of central Virginia. It has about 100 hundred officers and, created in 1983, is probably one of the youngest police departments in the country. Before that, an elected sheriff handled all law enforcement duties.

Norfolk is a big military area and hosts the world’s largest navy base, the Naval Station Norfolk. With all of those sailors plus various other colorful characters there were plenty of no-tell-motels, go-go dance bars, and storefront churches all competing for the souls of passers-by. In contrast, Albemarle County is host to many large country estates and horse farms and is also home to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Since it is only about two hours from D.C., and in conjunction with its many claims to fame, Albemarle County attracts the elite along with the ordinary.

Even though I had significant policing experience in two very different agencies, police work remained the same. Officers enforce laws and deal with human misery.

In Norfolk, the first call I went to by myself after I was cut loose from field training, involved a domestic dispute. When I arrived I found that the girl had put the business end of a shotgun in her mouth and pulled the trigger as she was sitting on the edge of the bed. The boyfriend said he was lying in bed when it happened. The fact that he had so little blood on him, if any, made his story difficult to believe – because with the girl’s brains splattered all over the wall and ceiling, it did not add up.

In Albemarle County I once went to another shotgun suicide (I did not know that is what happened until after I arrived – all was quiet on my arrival and dispatch had no information) and when I slowly peered inside the house my first thought was, “What the hell is that cow brain doing on the floor?!” I had seen cow brains for sale in ethnic food sections in some markets and the lobe I saw on the floor – still intact – reminded me of that. I scanned a little further in the dark room and in that same instant I knew where the brain really came from. I was amazed that the shogun blast split both lobes in half, yet they remained largely intact as they exited a shattered skull. Also amazing, after seeing so many ugly events, were the trivial thought processes cutting in line amongst the pressing issues at hand.

In both agencies I responded to many self-inflicted injuries resulting in death, plus many injuries and deaths of people at the hands of others. I knew very well, and worked with, officers from both agencies who were killed in the line of duty - one from Norfolk and one from Albemarle who later went to another agency where he met his End of Tour. I also participated once in specialty training with an officer from another agency who later was killed in the line of duty. I was no stranger to the risks officers face.

Both agencies also provided adrenalin pumping pursuits. In Norfolk I remember one in particular. The robbery suspects came flying through an intersection where I just happened to be. Well over a dozen police cars between Norfolk Police, Virginia Beach Police, and the State Police became involved snaking through city streets only to see the suspects elude capture and leave a few crashed police cars in their wake. Lack of leadership, planning, and effective training were to blame.

Albemarle County offered up vehicle pursuits also but occasionally pursuits involved traipsing through heavily wooded areas filled with uniform-ripping brambles and ankle-twisting logs scattered across uneven ground – not to mention poison ivy or the dangerous suspect.

And fights… both jurisdictions provided experience in that arena. I learned significant lessons from the guy who attacked me without provocation and vigorously tried to get my gun early in my police career. I remember well my Tasmanian Devil response in successfully defending myself. I learned what allowed the battle in the first place, and to never let that happen again.

The mundane in between the hair-raising was also common to both police departments.

In all those ways, both agencies had contrasts and similarities. In addition, both agencies had significant problems with police abuse of authority and other forms of misconduct. The culture of policing, similar in both agencies, largely took the same approach towards the misconduct and incompetence.




In Norfolk I saw a senior officer pull a handcuffed prisoner out of a police car and start slapping him just because he felt like it. I was the junior officer on scene among several senior officers and I was amazed that it seemed to bother nobody else. I was more stunned and confused when I told a supervisor about the incident and his response was, in essence, a yawn. And I didn’t know what to think when I continued to hear about and see similar incidents, some of which involved supervisors setting the bad example - in both departments.

I saw another facet of the attitude some officers possess when I was riding with a senior officer - well liked and respected at Norfolk PD - who gunned the engine of a police car and purposely lurched it forward towards a mother with a baby in a stroller, scaring her - and me - half to death. The officer was impatient. He had stopped initially but he had to wait too long for the young mother struggling to push the stroller across his path due to ruts along her path. Yet that was not the only example I saw of police having an almighty and grossly uncaring attitude - there were numerous other instances in both departments.

In Albemarle County I know of an officer who shot accidentally at a DUI suspect and how police department administrators - including the chief of police and the prosecutor - teamed up to cover up the incident. I know that the officer changed his story from an accidental shooting – something of which officers at the scene were aware - to later claiming he shot to protect the life of another officer. That was a lie - he had his finger on the trigger when he should not have. Not only did an investigation reveal the shooting was unintentional, the officer told me so himself. The investigation results were buried. I was on the firearms instructor team and I know that the entire team strongly believed the officer in question should go back to the range for more safety training. Police administrators declined. To do so would mean admitting mistakes were made. The same officer sometime later took a police car to go hunting and shot the police car instead of the deer. I know how the department went to great pains to cover up similar image tarnishing incidents.

In Norfolk once when I had just begun my shift and was heading to my sector, a vehicle running through a stop sign at about sixty-five miles per hour, in a residential area, t-boned my police car. The force of the impact sent me spinning like a top perhaps a couple hundred feet down the road. The other vehicle stayed near the point of impact but spun around ending up facing the opposite direction from from which it entered the intersection. I didn't know what hit me. The intersection was only a two-way stop and I had straight-through right of way. I glanced left and right as I approached the intersection and saw it was clear. I had been going about twenty-five miles per hour down the street and all of a sudden - bam! The other vehicle's distance from the intersection kept it out of my peripheral view as I approached but the driver's speed closed the distance quickly. The cage in my police car prevented more damage from the t-bone impact but it still knocked me around inside even with a seat belt in use.

The impact caused some vertebrae to move around and I started experiencing gradually increasing numbness in the weeks following. I ended up having steel plates and screws inserted in the base of my spine to prevent further movement. You can see how one of the middle screws has a slight separation. The doctor told me that happens sometimes as bone grafts take hold and the whole spinal fusion set-up solidifies as a complete support system. So while I do have a strong spine and I don't put up with any police incompetence or misconduct, it is fair to say I also have a screw loose. Some police administrators might point that out because I was so intent on speaking up about misconduct and seeking competency in policing - but isn't that something which should be open to public discourse and scrutiny?  Anyway, the injury did not slow me down and I continued in policing for about another 12 years.


I was grateful for the cavalry response to help me when I was involved in that accident but I bring it up to illustrate a point. The driver that struck my vehicle was at fault and consequently was charged with multiple violations: Reckless Driving, Suspended Operators License, No Insurance, and Improper Registration. He plead guilty to all the charges. The charges were all legitimate and it was appropriate that the driver bore responsibility for his actions.

However, there is occasionally a double standard which exists in policing. Sometimes police officers are responsible for vehicle accidents and they are not held accountable. Sometimes police are responsible for other types of accidents causing injury or death to others and accountability flys out the window. Sometimes family and friends of police are let off the hook.

Here are pictures of damage to another police vehicle - this one from Albemarle County PD - after it was towed to the county vehicle facility.


The damage is not a complete totaling of the vehicle but certainly the back end. You would think that whoever was responsible for the damage caused by the accident would be held accountable wouldn't you? The police car was being driven by a sergeant. The driver of the vehicle that struck the police car from behind was a family member of the sergeant. The family member was not charged with any traffic violation even though the typical charge would be following too close.

There were other officers I know of who were at fault in vehicle accidents but were not charged as the typical citizen would be. Double standards just don't seem right to me.

I know of supervisors who could not be reached on the radio because they were too busy having sex on duty. I personally know how some supervisors risked the safety of officers responding to a domestic by not telling them over the radio what they knew; that weapons might be involved and that a police supervisor was the cause of the domestic because he was having sex with someone else’s wife and had been caught by the husband.

I know about a Chief of Police who did not care about the welfare of his officers and in addition to demonstrating that regularly over the years, plainly told me so. I remember how when I expressed an issue of officer safety to that chief, his negative response about his officers was, “Fuck ‘em, fuck ‘em all.” I know how his example and attitude filtered down to some officers and was channeled to the public. I know how that Chief was more concerned about image over substance. I know that other police and government officials often have that same attitude towards the public.
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I know of many more incidents of police misconduct in both agencies and I know of the police culture that seeks to look the other way in many such incidents and how it is similar throughout the United States. I know that the complexities and challenges of policing are the same. I know there are many good police officers and some good leaders - but still too many bad ones. I also know that the Code of Silence is widespread and of the damage it causes policing and the severe danger it poses to the public. I know how some law enforcement officers significantly abuse their authority at great peril to citizens. I also know how the lack of competent leadership is often a large factor in police misconduct. And something I really know is how desperately some police administrators (and political types) will try to stop information vital to public safety from coming to the attention of the public and conjure up assorted fabrications.

My experiences are clamoring to get out along with the research I’ve been conducting. Therefore for the past year a book has been in the works. In order for me to devote more time to completing my book (no easy task I am finding out), this blog will be on hold.

I’ve got a lot to say and it needs to come out. Whether or not anybody else is interested is a different story but I am still pursuing my goal. I appreciate the visitors stopping by Blue Must be True and blog comments will remain open.

If anybody has any questions or comments concerning my book, please feel free to contact me at info@bluemustbetrue.com.