Tag: police culture

This brings back memories. Bad memories. Cops deal with this sh*t all the time.

A Baltimore reader emailed me this:

Michael Verdugo is a police officer in Florida who was on the HGTV show Design Star. He’s openly gay and a porn blog revealed that five years prior to becoming a police he was in a gay porn film. The police department he is in suspended him to investigate these allegations. Apparently he could be fired for this depending on how the investigation goes. This is what I don’t understand – how can you be fired for making a legal product?

Gay porn is legal, right? A lot of people (on the internet) say that he is being fired for being gay, but he has been out at his workplace for four years. I don’t understand how you can be punished for something legal that occurred before you were even at a job. I feel like there is something I don’t understand about police culture that is at the heart of this situation.

I can see the anti-gay lobby chomping at the bits! “See, first they made it legal… then they think it’s normal to be in a gay bondage films! Next they’ll be tying down our boys! Grab the torches and pitchforks!”

While homophobia isn’t the heartof police culture, I think it’s safe to say that police culture is not generally very liberal or gay friendly (neither are most Americans, it should be noted). There is an active gay NYPD association. And there are openly gay officers in the Netherlands and nobody seems to care.

But I knew of no openly gay (male) police officers in Baltimore (or closeted ones, for that matter). And yes, I used to joke all the time with my colleagues about their sexual orientation. (Gosh, you know what, I still do. And I’m about as gay friendly as a guy as you can be without… oh, jeeze, there I go again.)

Police, at least in theory, agree to uphold certain standards of morality in their personal life. And there’s the rub. Is it immoral to be in a gay porn film? Most people would say yes. And don’t forget, in 2003 sodomy was (and maybe still is) illegal in Florida!

Legal or not, police can get dismissed for actions that aren’t illegal. For instance, in the P.D., being a “coward” isn’t just an insult, it’s a disciplinary offense. And occasionally officers are (and should be) brought up on charges of being a coward (like if you watch your partner get his or her ass kicked and don’t do anything).

If you’re a cop and they really want to get you, “conduct unbecoming” is generally the catch-all. Now applying “unbecoming” to pre-job “conduct” is a bit of a stretch.

If they want to fire Verdugo for being in gay bondage files, they’ll probably get him for lying on his job application. What did he list as his previous employment? It would be interesting if he didlist “film career” or “actor” or something on his application. Because then he was open about it and it would be hard to blame him now (and he could place the blame on the background check).

I do wonder if any straight male or female police officers were “porn before police”? Would they get fired for it? In most of America–Hollywood, Florida, included–I doubt it.

“My one beef with law enforcement in general is I hate the top-down approach, that only people with rank can think.”

I think I’vesaid that before. But that quote is from D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier.

“Lanier wants to convert the department from a conventional military-style hierarchical culture into one driven from the bottom up. That means accountability and leadership need to come from all ranks, particularly from those at the bottom who play the most important role for citizens.”

Here’s the whole story.

Sunday’s New York Timeshad a nice little story by Niko Koppel about pictures and other mementos that police officer keep in their hats.

The hat-wearing regulation isn’t as strictly enforced in Baltimore as it is in New York City. But I like wearing hats.

Young police officers officers will quickly hear that hats, especially when you’re on foot, are a great place to keep things (like ticket books).

I tried that. It didn’t work. I sweat too much. With any heat, anything in my hat–pictures, paperwork, ham sandwiches–they would all be soaked and nasty before my shift was done.

I gotta say, many of these don’t really ring true to me. But some of them do. No matter, I still find them amusing. A friend sent them to me. It’s out there on the web. If anybody knows the source (or can think of more), let me know.

Narcotics units:

Immediately grow facial hair, tell everybody you were ordered to.
Start watching every episode of Monster Garage.
Buy a biker wallet with a big chain. Get numerous tats.
Make every case involve overtime $$$.
Buy bunches of boats, RV’s, and motorcycles with that overtime.
Learn to play golf drunk.

SWAT units:

Wear team T-shirts that are 2 sizes too small, Oakley sunglasses and boots everyday.
Try to fit the word “breach” in to every conversation.
Have a mirror handy to check hair, if you have hair.
Have 3 knives concealed about your person at any given time.
Never say hello to anyone who is not an operator, just practice your SWAT head nod, and flex your biceps at any opportunity.
Subscribe to Soldier of Fortune and Muscle and Fitness.
Learn to play golf wearing a gun.

Community Service units:

Hate SWAT.
Work to make everybody love you.
Paint your office in pastel colors.
Think Feng Shui.
Subscribe to Psychology Today.
Learn to play miniature golf.

School Resource Officers:

Starbucks before work, show up on campus at 0800 hrs.
Knows every coffee pot location on campus.
Sits behind his desk pretending to work, but really surfing the net.
Really hates kids but loves the hours.
Only talks to the cute teachers.
Only works at night when there is a football game.
Drives a golf cart all day on campus.

Traffic units:

Write tickets to EVERYBODY.
Spend every weekend cleaning your bike and polishing boots.
Annoy everyone on the radio calling out your T-stops.
Talk about nothing but how many tickets you wrote in one day.
Ride by a building with big windows to see your reflection.
Golf is lame, motor rodeos are cool.

Administrative Units:

Three-hour lunches everyday, tell everybody it’s a “meeting”.
Always carry a manila folder with you, so it looks like you are working, even if it is empty.
Upgrade department cell phone every month.
Tell everybody you have been published in a national law enforcement magazine.
Update your revenge list on a weekly basis.
Golf Rules! Play lots of golf, especially with the “higher ups.”

Patrol Units:

Have nerves of steel.
In a terminal state of heartburn from department politics.
Inability to keep mouth shut.
Has defining tastes in alcohol.
Is respected by peers.
Beats the crap out of his caddy on any bogeyed shot.

Investigators:

Come in at 0800.
“Breakfast” from 0815 to 1030.
Work from 1030 to Noon.
Work out and Lunch to 1400.
1400-1700 Sit in CID and talk about how many girlfriends you have and how the wife doesn’t know.
Plan your next RV, fishing, motorcycle trip.

Patrol Sergeant:

Remembers very well “how we used to do it.”
Always willing to tell his officers the above.
Tries to fit the word “liability” in to every sentence.
Talks about “what he’s hearing from upstairs.”

Trainee:

Unable to grow facial hair.
Watches every episode of Cops.
Worships the ground the SWAT guys walk on.
Wears black leather gloves at all times.
Arrives for work three hours early.
Thinks the sergeant is thrilled to see him.
Won’t drink on the golf course because it violates the open container ordinance.

I gave a talk on my book today at John Jay College. After the talk a man came up to me asking about my use of “cop.” He said when he was a kid, it was considered a bad word. Police officer is the proper term.

A couple of cops and students present discussed the issue. I don’t consider “cop” a bad word. Maybe it is a generational thing. And also, as one cop said, “it’s OK for cops to use the word.”

On the street, if somebody addressed me in the second person as “cop,” I wouldn’t have taken kindly to it. Officer was my title and it is, to some extent, a title of respect. But if you say, “I called 911 earlier and this cop came and said…”, that wouldn’t bother me at all.

I think cop is perfectly OK as a descriptive and when used in the third-person. But no, you shouldn’t address a cop as “cop.”