My Experience With San Rafael – Part III

By Richard Douglas, Captain (Retired) with editing help from Gene Pennington, Captain (Retired).

Bill received some criticism for offering the Police Association something without first checking with the council. Bill was not too happy with that so I got on his bad side.

Anyway, as I said earlier, I received a new title of Chief Criminal Investigator. I was assigned two other detectives, an Identification Officer and a secretary. (My secretary was the mayor’s sister in law. Her name was Christine Rossi). When Joe Brusatori announced his retirement date, the City manager searched for what expertise was available in other police departments and found a young, ambitious guy who was a Captain in Campbell PD. His name was Larry Kelly. Since Joe Brusatori was not yet retired and Larry Kelly was ready to start working, he was hired as a Captain so he could come in and familiarize himself to his new staff. On his first day, Joe took him around the department and introduced him to all the office staff. When he came into my office, Joe said, "And this is Dick Douglas, our Chief Criminal Investigator." Larry then said, "Oh yes. I've heard of you." I stood up, extended my hand and said, "All good I hope." Kelly said, "Nope", turned and walked out the door without shaking my hand.

A few months earlier, I had been nominated to attend the FBI School in Quantico, Virginia. The honor was bestowed on me for helping the local FBI Agents solve a couple of their Federal Crimes. (What they were is of no consequence but the FBI was able to recover many furs and some money, which had been stolen from interstate transport. (Actually, my information came from a couple of the teenagers who I let ride around with me when I was a patrolman) Chief Brusatori approved my attendance and passed the question on to the Council for their approval. The council also approved.

After Larry took over as the actual Chief, he learned that I was slated to attend the FBI School. He called me into his office and told me he was denying my attending the school. His excuse was that he would not allow any of his officers to attend any school without his having attended first so that he could evaluate it for its usefulness in police work. This was in early December and I was slated to fly to the school in early January.

To say that I was mortified would be an understatement. I called Joe Brusatori on the phone and told him about the turn of events. Joe said, "Don't worry. I'll take care of it." Joe then called someone on the council and the next thing I know, I received a request from the council to be at the next council meeting. I showed up and the first thing on the agenda was a question from the mayor, whether I was ready to attend the FBI School. I explained that Chief Kelly had canceled my going. The mayor then turned to Kelly and asked if this was true. He said it was. They then wanted a reason. Kelly told them that he did not want any of his officers to attend a school until he had a chance to attend so that he could evaluate it. The mayor then said that he and the council has enough faith in the FBI that any school they put on would be worthwhile for any law enforcement officer to attend. He then said, "Besides. We have already approved this school and we do not appreciate you countermanding our approval. Needless to say, I found myself in deeper doo doo.

I then attended the school. Towards the end, (it was three months) I received a phone call from Kelly. He called to tell me he was making some changes in the department and that the day I got back I was to go to graveyard as the shift supervisor. He also told me that he no longer wanted a sergeant in charge of investigations, he wanted a captain. So he would be conducting a test to see who would head up the bureau. I asked him if I would be eligible to take the test, since I had been serving in that capacity for a number of years and he said no. To qualify, one had to be a lieutenant.

So back to graveyard I went with Gene Pennington, Tom Smiley, Art Meyers, Mike Miller, Tony Hoke and Woody Hoke. And I can't forget our dispatcher, Jim Wright. What a crew we were. I was left there for the remainder of Kelly's career as Chief of the SRPD.

Pictured above is Dick’s Graveyard Shift.  Picture was taken in the 1970s.  Pictured in the back row, left to right:  Art Myers, Woody Hoke, Mike Miller, Jim Wright and Tom Smiley - Front row, left to right: Dick Douglas, Gene Pennington and Tony Hoke

Pictured above, from left to right, are Joe Leonard, Dick Douglas and Ken Homen.  All members of the SRPD Pistol Team.  Picture taken during the Captain Weber Memorial 7th Annual Stockton Police National Pistol Championships.

Pictured above with some recovered stolen property, from left to right, are Officer Dick Douglas and Sergeant Tom Stephenson.