Tag Archives: Retirement

It’s All Downhill From Here

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Over thirty years ago, I started the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy as a fresh-faced twenty-three old recruit.  Every day we marched onto the academy grounds calling cadence that counted down each week. The first week’s cadence was, “Twenty-six weeks and we’ll be through. I’ll be glad, how about you?” At the time, six months was like looking at the top of a mountain where the summit was an impossibility.

It’s now the last week of December and I have six months until I retire. I’m at the top of that summit and it’s all down hill from here. When I started the academy, those six months couldn’t come soon enough and now, it’s almost the same. I still enjoy The Job, but it’s different now.  Society is different. The new cops are different. It’s more dangerous. It’s just different.

One of the most memorable lines in the movie Lethal Weapon was, “I’m getting too old for this shit.”

This is a young man’s game. Even NFL quarterbacks have to retire one day, even if they can still play.

“Twenty-six weeks and I’ll be through. I’ll be glad, how about you?”

(By the way, it was Class 119!)

Happy retirement Deputy

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In May of 1990, my uncle Eddie (Ed to most people) graduated from the academy and became a Deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. I missed his graduation because I had a final to take at school.

I remember the graduation party at my grandmother’s house after I finished my test at school. Eddie was wearing his uniform with his shiny deputy star on his chest as he posed for pictures with us. He was 4 years older than me and the first cop in our family. I was proud of him.

After he started working, he encouraged me to be a deputy. One day I went over his house and we had a long talk about police work. That conversation, along with another with a family neighbor, who worked for LAPD, pushed me toward a police career.

I can still picture where I sat in his house and how I left knowing the seed was planted for a career in law enforcement. That seed was later watered during a ride along with the Los Angeles Police Department that was set up through my mom’s neighbor.

I graduated from the Orange County Sheriff’s academy about 1 1/2 years after that conversation at Eddie’s house. It was a great moment to stand next to Eddie, who was there in his uniform. It was actually the only time we were in uniform together.

Now, after almost 26 years as a deputy, Eddie retired. It’s hard to believe he’s now a “retired cop.” Knowing he’s retired means I’m really not that far behind him, which is weird. I still have a ways to go, but the sun will set on my police career before I know it just like it did for Eddie.

Congrats on your retirement. Now, let’s go back to Maui.