March 2011 Dallas Police Shield, Back in the Day
Decompression. That’s what I called the first year of my retirement. It was tough. One day you’re somebody that people respect, the next day you’re a civilian that at one time was somebody. I looked around and not having or wanting another job, and being relatively young, I had a hard time with the job of being retired.
Police are famous for gallows humor. While around our friends at work, it was easy to laugh off things we had done and seen that day. Yeah we’re cops and we can handle it. But I remember when “Psyche Services” was a big deal with the DPD. If the job got to you, you had somewhere to turn, and talk with someone who understood. It was made up of current officers with degrees in counseling and Dr. Al. We always had a great respect for these officers and Dr. Al who listened to everybody’s problems. And there were lots of problems. We just didn’t talk about it among our buddies.
I just finished the book on Senator John McCain’s life. In part, he wrote that while at Annapolis, and again in the North Vietnamese prison camps, if another serviceman didn’t show enough “grease,” he was just not one of the boys. You had to do what was right and not complain. It was only during the dark days of imprisonment that some men broke. By then no one could fault them. It was like the officers I knew back in the day. You rarely admitted that you had ever been scared.
But do you ever dream of your time with the DPD? I rarely do, but I think about it a lot during the day. I’ll see a building in East Dallas and think about a disturbance call there. I ‘m running up the stairs in July 1977 sweating in my ill fitting first generation vest, hearing banging and shouting as me and my trainer get to the top and confront two people about to kill each other. Or running at night through a vacant lot after a burglar, tripping and landing hard on an elbow that still hurts sometimes after 30 years. Yes, we all have hundreds of stories.
Riding and sweating in the SWAT van to a narcotics raid, trying to remember what the diagram of the inside of the house looks like. The SWAT guys nervously looking at each other in the darkened vehicle, and trying not to look too concerned. Jumping out, running towards the crack house, and thinking that the front of the place looks nothing like what the narcotics officer described. We all have thousands of memories.
Riding that old, non ABS, old technology Kawasaki police motorcycle at high speed during an escort, especially at night. Things happening way too fast. The headlights were bad, brakes nominal. We have those thoughts too sometimes.
They all came back when I retired. Funny how that works. But when I left the DPD, and was so engulfed in the exit process, maybe I missed someone telling me that there is a post retirement counselor that a retiree could sit and talk to. I must have missed that one.
Anyway, thank the Lord that I discovered church after retirement; I admittedly hadn’t been much since my kids were small. It sometimes comes back during some of the services, and yes, a tear or two wells up. But I still keep it to myself.
But one thing we do have are our retiree lunches, and breakfasts. These times are beneficially on many levels. We see old friends and even old enemies (LOL) that you may not have seen in years. We tell stories, bounce ideas off each other, relate how much better the DPD was when WE were there, all the hundreds of stories, and thousands of memories that come back when we least expect it. We defer still somewhat to the Sergeants, Lieutenants, and Chiefs. That never seems to go away completely. The quiet guys are still quiet, and usually sit off to the side, until someone says to come over and sit with us! And the officer’s who were always the center of attention at work, are still the center of attention. And they make sure that they are!
Yes, there is that old saying, “We are all we have.” It still has meaning.
Thanks to retiree Gary Price for the kind letter. He explained the three lines of the old DPD door decal meant Loop 12, Beltline Road, and 635. Good hearing from you!
Thanks also to Rufus High #1206. He referred to last month’s article about reporters at 106. One reporter was Johnny Rutledge. Allan Bull communicated that he also knew this reporter in the 80’s while in Capers. He mentioned that cameraman Terry Van Sickle was a good guy as well. Another reporter Rufus wrote about was Jim Ewell whom I believe is the one that I remember from the 70’s. Rufus mentions a one-armed newspaper deliveryman who rode a three wheeled motorcycle (Harley or Indian probably) that delivered newspapers downtown. Interesting! Thanks to all three writers.
W.H.Croom, II #3973
DPD Retired
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